Skyangel
by Rose's.wings
Summary: G1: They say it takes a village to raise a child, but whoever said that probably didn't count on the 'village' being a gaggle of Autobots. Now Silverbolt and the Aerialbots get to experience the joys and chaos of surrogate parenthood while they try to find the human girl's real family. Of course, no one asked Skyangel if she wanted to leave them in the first place...
1. Chapter 1: The Waif

So I know I've already got a multi-chapter story in the works, but this idea has been pulling at me for some time and I've got so much written that I figured I might as well post it. Right now there's no real schedule for posting new chapters, partly because they're all going to be really, _really_ long. I read some stories like that and wanted to try it out. (I think the main one I'm thinking of is Small Problems by Ghost of the Dawn. It's a really cute/actiony/Prowl thinking 'what-did-I-ever-do-to-deserve-this-weirdness' sort of story. And was great fun to read.)

So it's G1-verse (another new thing I'm trying) and it focuses mainly on the Aerialbots. The rating is for some more mature themes later on dealing with Skyangel's past so be warned! Other then that I don't know what to say except I hope you enjoy the story and to please leave me some reviews! Thanks for reading! ;)

...

Skyangel

Chapter One: The Waif

Silverbolt still wasn't sure how he'd ended up with the human child, but after all the chaos he had just flown through he wasn't surprised that his processor was still a little…fuzzy.

Even for a battle things had been messy. The airport the Decepticons had targeted had been flooded with people all coming back from the Thanksgiving holiday and the turmoil of them all running towards the doors had reminded Silverbolt of so many laboratory mice trying to get out of a maze after a starving cat had leapt into it.

"Ugh!" Slingshot had said, lifting his foot so he wouldn't step on a group of the small beings and get their organic squishiness all over him. "Get out of the way you stupid humans!"

Silverbolt held back a disappointed sigh. "Slingshot they need our help-"

He got no further. "Yeah, yeah," the other bot drawled, "relax there fearless leader. I didn't step on them or anything." He grumbled. "Yet…"

Silverbolt shot the other Aerialbot a sharp look, but was distracted by a kiosk smashing through the side of the airport building.

The Aerialbot leader ducked to avoid splintering wood. "Alright guys," he said as he raised a hand to protect his face, half of the kiosk sign glancing off the armor on his arm, "apparently the Decepticons are after the flight plans. We're not sure why, but it can't be a good thing. We need to get in there and stop them. Now."

"Then let's quit talkin' and start busting some Decepticon chops!" Air Raid yelled, throwing a fist in the air.

Silverbolt nodded and shot the other bot next to him a sharp look. "_Without_ harming the humans." He stressed.

Slingshot just sighed, annoyed by this constant 'don't hurt the Earthlings' junk. He must have heard it a thousand times just this orbit!

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he muttered before running off after the other Aerialbots.

Silverbolt didn't have time for more then another shake of his head before Thrust and Dirge rammed through the airport wall.

The pitch of the human screaming went up drastically as the small creatures leapt out of the way of falling debris and the cone heads' stomping feet. Silverbolt grimaced, feeling sick as he realized the two Seekers were _laughing._

The Aerialbot leader ran forward, mindful of the humans still flooding out of the building. "Prime!" He shouted into his comm. unit as he closed the distance between him and the cone heads. "The west wall is practically gone! The whole building's gonna collapse any minute!"

There was a brief burst of static as Silverbolt reached the crumbling wall and greeted Dirge with a punch to the faceplates. The Decepticon gave a shout of pain as he flew backwards and hit what remained of the far corner of the building. The screech and crash he made on impact drowned out the beginning of Prime's answer.

"-still a few miles away from your position Silverbolt. Just hold them off until we get there and try to evacuate any remaining humans." Prime's steady voice finally became discernable across the channel. "Give us five minutes."

"Right," Silverbolt breathed out, the heavy layer of dust in the air clogging up his intakes. He closed off the channel just as something hot slammed into him from behind.

He was thrown forward, crashing through the wall debris before landing heavily on the ground, just narrowly avoiding some poor human that was so terrified they couldn't even run away.

Silverbolt groaned, face buried in the floor. It was dark, which was odd since the day was bright and sunny despite the cold in the air. At first he thought the fall had offlined his optics, but then he realized that he was just in the remains of the airport.

"Hey mister," a small, frightened voice said somewhere close by, "Hey mister Autobot! You gotta get up! That thing is coming our way!"

Silverbolt blinked, trying to get his optics used to the suddenly dim light. The Decepticon attack must have cut the power, because all of the lights were off. At least the ones that weren't broken were.

Optics finally used to the dim gray, Silverbolt finally made out the silhouette of a young human male standing in front of him. He was covered in dirt and grime from all the explosions, but sweat and tears had cut tracks through the dirt coating him. He looked terrified out of his mind and his eyes kept darting to something coming up behind the downed plane.

"Dude get up!" He urged again. "He's right behind you!"

Before he could say anything else, Silverbolt saw the man's eyes go wide and his mouth drop open. Courage gone, he hastily backed up to join the cluster of people hiding behind the information center behind him. His eyes never left whatever it was that was behind the Autobot.

Silverbolt squinted through the dark, ignoring the threat as he tried to see how many people were still trapped in the crumbling building. All he could make out though was the occasional patch of skin color and a strangely square, bright red thing in the middle of the crowd.

"Time to meet your maker Autoscum!" Dirge suddenly shouted. He was a whole lot closer then Silverbolt had thought he was. Apparently the Seeker was sneakier then he had given him credit for.

Silverbolt rolled instinctively, making it a few feet before coming to a hard stop against a jumble of twisted railing. But it was just enough space that Dirge's blast only glanced his side plating. It burned like Pit, but it was nothing Ratchet couldn't fix later.

_"If there is a later." _Silverbolt thought grimly as he reached up and fired off a volley of shots at the seeker.

Dirge grunted as the first few blasts hit him high on the chest, making him stumble back. But then he tripped over a large piece of building behind him and he fell out of Silverbolt's line of sight, letting the last few shots fly harmlessly over his head-

-and straight into the remaining support beams keeping the ceiling from collapsing in on everyone still under it.

There was a group of high shrieks of fright from the cluster of humans. Silverbolt heard the cries of men, women - and with growing horror - children.

Ignoring the painful dents and scorched armor, Silverbolt rolled to his feet and, without thinking, dove for the newest hole in the wall.

He grunted as the edge of the ceiling fell heavily on his shoulders and upraised arms. The humans' shouting died down as the ominous rumblings of stressed stone and metal died away as the Autobot did his best to keep the building from collapsing altogether.

_"Not yet,"_ the Concorde told himself as the weight of the roof threatened to flatten him where he stood, _"it can't fall yet!"_

His quaking knee joints and shaking arms disagreed with him. He wouldn't be able to withstand this kind of stress forever.

"What are you waiting for?" Silverbolt shouted when he didn't see any of the humans pass him into the late November sunlight. "Get outta there!"

They didn't need any other urging. They darted out of the limited safety of their hiding place and streamed out of the building past the plane struggling to hold up the building.

The roof bore down on Silverbolt, making his arms feel like they were on fire. His legs were just plain numb by now. Still he grit his teeth and lifted the roof higher as more cracks and fissures appeared in the stone around him.

"Hur-ry…" Silverbolt grunted at the humans. There were less of them now thank goodness.

And then suddenly there were more again. Only they didn't come from inside the damaged airport. They were backtracking, retreating back into the shadow of Silverbolt's stressed frame.

"What're you do-?" He started to demand.

He stopped when he saw the blaster pointed dead center at his spark.

Thrust grinned sickeningly as he leveled his gun at the defenseless Autobot. "He he, you know, I always _did_ hear that you had a soft spot for humans, even by Autobot standards. So I guess you don't mind dying with the fleshlings then, right?" He asked.

Silverbolt didn't waste energon on answering him. Just kept his optics trained on the end of the weapon pointed at him. The end was starting to glow.

::Uh, guys? I could use a little help over here!:: He sent silently through the Aerialbots' comm. channel.

There was a grunt on the other end. ::Yeah, so could we.:: Air Raid sent back. Distantly Silverbolt heard the jet shout before tossing whoever was attacking him away.

::I'm afraid things aren't going well over here either.:: Skydive offered. The wind noise coming through the channel told Silverbolt that Skydive at least was still in the air. ::Starscream and his Seekers have implemented a very successful divide and conquer method against us and I'm afraid that without reinforcements-::

::We're screwed!:: Slingshot finished for him.

Silverbolt grimaced as the weight of the building pressed harder on him. His knees sank another inch or so. The humans at his feet shook as well as Thrust eyed them like a spoiled child looks at a teddy bear that still has its head.

"Don't worry fleshlings," he told them with a sadistic shrug of his shoulders, "if you aren't crushed when the Autobrat here falls, I'll make sure to step on ya."

Silverbolt didn't take his optics off of his attacker, but at the bottom of his line of sight, he saw that strange, bright red square again as it inched closer to him uncertainly.

"Over-my-dead-body!" Silverbolt ground out.

Thrust just chuckled darkly again. The glow in the mouth of his gun became stronger. The whine of a fully charged shot reached Silverbolt's audios.

"It'll be my pleasure." Thrust said, digit tightening on the trigger.

A blinding flash of light hit Silverbolt in the optics and he looked away, expecting the sharp bite of a point blank shot to his chest before he offlined completely.

Except the shot went wide and exploded a section of the ceiling near his head instead.

Curiously, Silverbolt opened his optics. The only pain he had felt had been the pieces of ceiling pinging against his helmet. What had happened?

He gave a startled laugh when he saw what had.

"Guys!" He exclaimed when he saw the four Autobots that had joined the battle in front of him. "I don't think I've ever bee so happy to see you in my life!"

Sideswipe laughed as he leapt over Thrust's pointy head, confusing him long enough for his twin to sucker punch the Seeker in the face before sweeping his legs right out from under him so Sideswipe could land on him.

"Yeesh, ya hear that Brawn? Doesn't even give us a hello." Ironhide said as he reached Silverbolt's side and immediately got a shoulder under the collapsing ceiling.

"Just goes to show you the problem with late recruits." Brawn shouted back as he did the same on Silverbolt's other side.

Silverbolt nearly collapsed in a relieved heap on the ground as the circulation returned to his arms in a rush. "Thanks guys," he told them, relief plain in his voice.

Ironhide shook the thanks away. "Transform and get the humans outta here. We got this."

Silverbolt nodded, letting his arms drop away from the roof as he transformed into his alt mode; a Concorde SST. As an airliner, he had more then enough room for the remaining humans, and as a super sonic transport, he could get them out of danger fast as soon as he was in the air.

"Go on git!" Ironhide shouted at the humans, voice not nearly as strained as Silverbolt's had been. Without question, the humans surged toward the airliner's lowered ramp.

"Come on!" Silverbolt urged the humans over his radio. "Everyone find a seat and buckle in."

They did, quicker then he had thought they would. As he prepared for take off, he counted roughly twenty or so of them onboard, but it was difficult to get an exact number since his internal sensors didn't recognize them as much. He had to count by judging the weight of the filled seats.

As soon as the last human was on, he started taxing, pulling up his ramp and closing the door after he was moving. When he had put about fifty feet between them and the building, Ironhide and Brawn dropped the roof and leapt back into the fray with the twins. The ground shook with the force of the airport finally collapsing in on itself.

"Hold on!" Silverbolt told the humans as he quickly gathered enough speed to leave the battleground. He angled his nose steeply upward, throwing his passengers back against their seats as the g-forces hit them.

The air wasn't much clearer then the ground had been. Starscream, caught in a dog fight on the other side of the building with Skydive, Slingshot, and now Fireflight, saw him trying to retreat into open air.

"Skywarp!" The lead seeker's screechy voice could be heard above the sounds of battle. "Stop him!"

Not needing to be told twice, the purple jet twisted sharply out of Slingshot's path, nearly making him run into Fireflight in the process, and disappeared in a bright haze that left sunspots on Silverbolt's optical sensors.

Only to reappear not ten feet away from his left flank.

Silverbolt managed to dodge the first few shots, but Skywarp was quick to adapt his angle. The Autobot shouted as the shots rammed into his already weakened side armor and he listed crazily in the air, his passengers screaming out their fear.

Silverbolt ignored them. He tried to focus on the air in front of him, tried to put as much distance as he could between him and the cackling jet, but it was no use. Not when his vision was starting to blur around the edges and static was invading his audios.

::Mayday! Mayday!:: Silverbolt sent over the Autobot main channel. ::I'm hit. Don't have enough energon to stay airborne. Going in for an emergency landing. Send reinforcements.:: He told the others as he struggled not to let his optics offline entirely.

The New Hampshire airport was surrounded by winter pines, making Silverbolt flinch as he realized he could either land in the trees with his optics online, or he could wait the few minutes to get past them and land blind. With all the static filling his vision now they wouldn't be able to help him much longer.

Inside his cabin, a familiar ding could be heard by most of the panicked passengers.

"Attention humans, the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign for this emergency landing. So buckle up and hold on tight and I'll make this as smooth as possible." He told them then laughed weakly. "Sorry, little flying humor there. Just put the belts on."

Nobody laughed of course, especially since Skywarp's blaster scored another row of hits along the plane's starboard side.

Silverbolt grimaced as the pain flared up not only from his new wounds, but from the springy tree tops slapping against his underside. He didn't bother with the landing gear, fearing they'd snap clean off in the thick trees as they whipped against him, scoring paint and making dents of their own even against his stronger Cybertronian armor.

He gave up resisting the urge to shout as he sunk deeper into the tree line. It wasn't like the humans were being quiet about this anyway.

He shouted as his vision became sporadic fields of green and brown as his nose pierced through the clumps of closely growing tree trunks, his nose either snapping them off when he hit them or changing direction like a ball in a pinball machine.

And then he was plowing into soft ground, sending up tidal waves of dirt and mangled tree roots until they covered his windows and just about buried his forward half. Overhead, Skywarp shot by, observing the destruction the crashing Autobot had caused to the small forest.

Skywarp laughed as he circled around to see if his opponent still lived.

Right then Silverbolt was wondering the same thing. His processor felt cloudy, disjointed from his battered frame, but then the pain reasserted itself, and he realized he was very much alive.

_"Lucky me…"_ he thought somewhat sarcastically. Apparently Slingshot was wearing off on him.

He groaned loud and low, the vibrations shaking some of the dirt from his windows. He felt like he'd been chewed up, spit out, and stuck to the sidewalk as he had heard his human friend Spike say whenever he'd been unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a pile of falling boulders or pieces of war debris (which had happened more then once if you could believe it).

His next thought, after comparing himself to chewed up gum, was of his human passengers. "Is…" he started slowly, "is everybody…alright?"

A series of groans answered him, along with a few, "I think so,"'s from some of the braver ones on board.

_"Good," _Silverbolt thought, but didn't have the strength to say it out loud. "Right then," he said instead, trying to gather his thoughts. The high pitched whine of an incoming aircraft helped to clear his mind some more.

"You need to get off," he told the humans, as he popped the back exit with some effort. The front one was still completely covered in dirt and tree debris, "out the emergency exits, anything. Just get yourselves out of here." He told them, more of his strength returning.

"But-" one of the humans, a young woman wearing the blue uniform of one of the flights that had been at the airport awaiting passengers, "but what about the Decepticons?" She asked worriedly. Her eyes were already wide, but the dirt on her cheeks only made them appear bigger, like a brown eyed fish starving for water.

"They're not interested in you," Silverbolt assured her, "just don't let them see you. Run. _Hide._ Now!" He shouted.

His shout sent the humans scurrying for the exits. They were out in seconds, especially after two of the passengers opened the still clear emergency exits as well.

Silverbolt was only vaguely aware of the humans running off into the woods away from the airport and back towards the main roads that, thankfully, the Decepticons hadn't blocked off. He kept most of his attention however on his internal alarms, shutting most of them off as they appeared, one by one. He sucked in the pain and tried to transform back into his bipedal mode.

It was hard, and more painful then he had thought possible. He must have snapped more then one of his transforming joints, the ones that twisted the main parts of his body so that the smaller joints could turn into their proper positions. More then once he thought he wouldn't be able to make it back to his feet, but he could hear Skywarp's whine coming closer behind him. If he didn't get back on his feet then the jet would finish him without a struggle.

"Not me," Silverbolt ground past his clenched teeth without realizing it. "You're not gonna get me that easy!" He swore, then with a shout, twisted the last part into place, completing his frame.

For a moment he knelt there, hunched over as he tried to push past the nausea running down his circuits. His spine burned, sending more waves of sickness over him. He feared the shot he'd taken in the back might have damaged the main conduit running there – like a human spinal column – but he forced the worry away as he surged crookedly to his feet.

He managed to stand up straight enough to turn around, and then nearly fell over again as Skywarp came shooting out of the sky to land in front of him with a boom that made the ground quake under Silverbolt's unsteady feet.

Skywarp laughed when he saw him swaying, trying to stay upright and failing.

"What's the matter Autobot?" The purple and black Seeker taunted. "Can't figure out which one of me to hit? Personally, I would go for the middle one."

He stepped forward and slammed a fist into the side of Silverbolt's head, sending him reeling up against a broken pine.

The Seeker grinned crookedly as he rubbed his fist. "But that's just me of course."

Silverbolt didn't answer him. It was all he could do to keep his optics focused on the three swirling purple Seekers in front of him, forget talking to them.

He shook his head, trying to clear it. _"Him." _He corrected himself. _"Not them. There's only one of him and one of me. That makes us even right?"_

Discreetly he tried to stand again, but only slumped farther against the splintered tree trunk, lodging bits of wood between the armor on his palms.

_"Nope," _he answered his own question, _"we are so uneven I'm not even an underdog. I'm just a dead mech."_

Even so he tightened his grip on his gun and tried to find the strength to aim and fire it.

Skywarp just laughed at the Autobot's feeble attempts to raise the weapon. He didn't attack as Silverbolt slowly brought his gun up, only laughed again when he couldn't keep it steady.

"Closer," the Seeker taunted him, "closer. Oops, nope go back to your left. There ya go. Now fire while you're still aimed at me. If ya actually hit me I'll even make sure to kill ya quick and painless like. Can't get a better deal then that." He told him.

Silverbolt shuttered one optic, hoping it would make the other two Skywarps disappear. No such luck.

Dredging up whatever focus he still had left in him, Silverbolt did his best to aim, and then took the shot.

The blaster bolt cut through the air…and sailed a good foot and a half to Skywarp's left.

The Seeker just chuckled. He hadn't even flinched when the gun had gone off.

"Oh well," he said as he took a step towards the severely injured mech, "looks like today's just not your lucky day Silverbolt. Too bad."

Silverbolt didn't try to move away as Skywarp walked closer. He didn't have any strength left in him to twitch, much less fight back.

"Tell old Alpha Trion I said hello." Skywarp said as he aimed for the weakened armor above Silverbolt's spark.

Silverbolt sighed somewhat dramatically. This was the second time in the last hour a Decepticon had aimed for his spark. Weren't they supposed to be more creative with their killings?

"This is getting old," Silverbolt muttered.

Skywarp heard him and tilted his head in confusion. "What'd you say Autobot?"

Silverbolt didn't bother answering, just stared up at the Decepticon in quiet glee. "Nuthin'," Silverbolt mumbled loud enough for Skywarp to hear him, "I was just saying I wasn't aiming at you before."

Skywarp's confusion grew, making his optics narrow as he stared at the injured mech before him.

Silverbolt just watched as the tree he had shot earlier finally finished its lumbering fall and landed with a loud crash on the seeker's unsuspecting head.

CRASH!

Skywarp's face remained frozen in confusion as he and the tree trunk fell bonelessly to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Silverbolt couldn't resist a somewhat deranged laugh.

"Stu~pid." He told the unconscious Seeker.

Right before he slumped sideways as his injuries from the fight and the crash finished catching up with him.

He barely remembered seeing Skydive and Optimus Prime coming through the mess of scattered tree branches and broken trunks before he crashed completely, processor disappearing into the unconsciousness demanded by his emergency protocols.

"Silverbolt!" Skydive exclaimed when he saw his leader sag to the ground. He ran forward, stepping on Skywarp's hand (on purpose or not Optimus couldn't tell) in the process.

"Silverbolt can you hear me?" Skydive tried as he knelt down in front of the other mech. Silverbolt, of course, did not respond.

Over Skydive's shoulder, Optimus looked over the Aerialbot's wounds. There was the scorched and crumpled side plating, a blow to his spinal strut if the energon smear behind him was anything to go by, not to mention the numerous dents and scratches all over him.

Optimus vented a sigh, long experience telling him that it would be awhile before Silverbolt was fully recovered. However it didn't appear there was anything immediately life threatening. Still, they would have to get him to Ratchet as quickly as possible. Unfortunately the Autobot medic was still back at base, several states away.

"We need to get him to the _Ark_," Optimus said, "quickly. Ratchet has his work cut out for him."

Skydive nodded, still trying to get Silverbolt to wake up. He stopped though when Optimus put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"The rest of the Decepticons have broken off their attack. Let's get him to Skyfire so we can get home quickly." Prime said. "Between the two of us he shouldn't be hard to lift."

Skydive looked down at his unconscious brother and nodded quickly before straightening up and getting a shoulder under Silverbolt's heavier frame. Prime supported him from the other side as they returned to the secluded runway where the Autobot carrier sat idling, ready to take them back to the _Ark_ and Ratchet's well supplied med bay.

...

The flight was short, despite the fact they had to cross almost the entire country to reach the Autobot ship. They had sent out a message to the _Ark _during the flight, telling them the outcome of the battle and their list of injured, so it was no surprise when they found Ratchet waiting for them when Skyfire landed at the base of the dormant volcano in Oregon.

"Get him inside," Ratchet told the Aerialbots as Fireflight and Air Raid appeared, their unconscious leader supported between them, "I'll see to him first, but what's everyone else's status?" He asked Optimus as the Aerialbots made their way inside.

"A few dents and scratches, nothing too extreme." Optimus told him.

Ratchet narrowed an optic at the Autobot leader, and then rumbled deep in his chest. "Right," he said slowly, clearly remembering the taller bot's tendencies to belittle his own injuries, especially when someone else was hurt, "I still want to see each of you when I'm done with Silverbolt." And then quickly, before anyone could voice their protests, Ratchet added. "If you don't come by my med bay I'll be forced to take drastic measures."

_That _shut everybody else up. As far as the crew of the _Ark_ was concerned, Ratchet's drastic measures ranked _below_ facing Megatron totally alone on the general 'List of Ways I Want to be Slagged'.

With one final evil optic to make sure they had taken him seriously, Ratchet stormed indoors, quickly and expertly making his way to his med bay.

Air Raid and Fireflight had just laid Silverbolt on one of the examination tables when Ratchet arrived. Wasting no time, he set about running scans to get a better idea of what he was dealing with.

"What did he do to himself?" Ratchet muttered as he looked over the results of the internal scans. "Stand under a collapsing building?"

"No," Fireflight said, not hearing the sarcasm until it was too late, "but he did hold one up until Ironhide and Brawn got there."

Ratchet slid the absentminded Aerialbot a dark look, but went back to his scan results when the look slid right off of Fireflight's generally all around good demeanor.

"So…" Skydive said slowly a moment later when Ratchet didn't tell them anything, "is he going to be okay?"

Ratchet shot the Aerialbot second in command a very different look altogether. Generally Ratchet was very good at keeping his feelings to himself, however Skydive had seen the worry showing through the medic's optics.

"He should be." Ratchet finally said. "Once I get this spinal injury repaired. The plating will hurt more then anything but it shouldn't-"

_Clong, clong, clong._

Ratchet stopped speaking at the strange sound. For a minute he thought it was someone knocking on the door.

"What?" He shouted irritably at the open door across the room.

Nobody answered.

The Aerialbots looked around at each other. Then, curious as always, Fireflight went and poked his head out the door. When he looked back at his friends he looked rather confused.

"No one's there." He told them.

Ratchet frowned, angry that someone would pull a prank on him at a time like this. "Anyway," he said sternly, giving the door another dark look before focusing back on Silverbolt, "Skydive, help me turn him over so I can-"

_Clong, clong, clong!_

The knocking came again, more urgent then before.

Ratchet lost it. "Sideswipe! Sunstreaker! If that's you I am going to _slag_ the both of you and then fix you up and do it again!" He yelled as he stomped out the door to catch hold of the culprits, twins or not.

But there was nothing for him to grab.

"Fraggit!" Ratchet yelled, incensed now, "I don't have time for this!"

_Ka-clung! Clungaclung clung!_

Skydive looked over at the furious medic still standing out in the hallway, looking for the source of the sound. "It's not coming from out _there_," Skydive realized.

"Huh?" Fireflight asked just as Ratchet demanded, "Well where _is_ it coming from then?!"

Skydive waited for the knocking sound to reappear.

_Clung!_ It echoed slightly, giving the Autobot a few more seconds to track down the source.

"It's definitely something metal." Air Raid said as he started listening too.

"Big help that is," Ratchet said as he stormed back into the room, "everything in here is metal. Including us!" He harrumphed grumpily as he set about gathering the tools he'd need to ensure that Silverbolt's spine had made it through the battle in one piece.

_Ka-clungclung!_

Skydive took two more steps towards the sound.

And found himself standing right in front of the unconscious Silverbolt.

He shot the other Aerialbots a confused look, but they just shrugged.

"Maybe his pump was damaged in the fight?" Slingshot suggested. "What else bangs around like that?"

But Ratchet shook his head as he came back over to investigate. "No, that would make a sharper sound, and it wouldn't be near as loud. It sounds like something is…banging against the underside of his plating." He said slowly, trying to make sense of this situation. He had kind of been hoping it had been the twins, plain and simple, but this didn't feel like their handiwork, he admitted grudgingly.

Skydive bent over Silverbolt's chest, where the banging was loudest, and waited.

_….clung?_

The sound felt almost questioningly this time, but it didn't matter, he was sure he knew where it was coming from now.

"Alright, that _definitely _came from inside Silverbolt." Air Raid said.

Skydive nodded. "Yeah, I know." He murmured thoughtfully.

"But," Fireflight frowned lightly, "what is it?"

Skydive glanced up at Ratchet now standing next to him, silently asking for permission. After a klik of thinking on it, Ratchet nodded once.

Skydive looked over at the rest of his brothers. "Let's find out." He told them.

The other jet-formers gathered closer as Skydive and Ratchet carefully began shifting panels out of the way of the knocking.

"My scans didn't pick up any malfunctions in this area." Ratchet told them as he carefully undid a screw that kept the lid of a storage compartment in place. "So I don't see what could be making that sound." He said again as he took the displaced screw and carefully set it on a metal tray next to him.

Skydive didn't answer him as he lifted away the panel.

Five inquisitive heads leaned over the box like area where the seats of Silverbolt's alt mode were stored while he was in robot mode.

Slingshot shoved Air Raid next to him. "Move over. I can't see!" He complained.

"That's because it's dark inside genius." Fireflight told him.

"Will all of you shut up before I weld your afts to your bunks?" Ratchet snapped.

The remaining Aerialbots gasped.

Ratchet glared at them. "What?! Don't think I won't you smart-afts! Just ask those dang twins what happened the last time they messed with my equipment and they'll-"

"Ratchet." Skydive interrupted softly before pointing at Silverbolt's chest compartment. "_Look._"

Still frowning, Ratchet did.

And then he gasped too.

A small, blonde head had appeared out of Silverbolt's storage compartment. One very small, very blonde, very _human_ head.

Ratchet spoke the words they were all thinking.

"What the heck?"

The little girl – it was obvious she was a girl with those facial features and long curls – gazed at the five robots gathered around her with wide blue eyes. All the while she didn't make a sound, just stared at them each in turn.

Finally she blinked and the Autobots took this as their queue to start talking again.

"What in the world?" Fireflight muttered in shock.

"Who are you?" Air Raid asked the girl.

"Ew _gross_! It's one of those organic things!" Slingshot cringed violently.

Air Raid rolled his optics at him. "Human, Slingshot. She's a human."

"Yeah but she was inside him! That's disgusting!" He shuddered and tried not to gag.

Skydive and Ratchet were the only ones that were still silent. They were also the only ones still really watching the little girl.

"Interesting," Skydive finally said as the little girl looked between him and Ratchet calmly. "She must have gotten trapped in the seat compartment when Silverbolt transformed." He commented.

"But how'd she even get in there?" Fireflight asked curiously as he bent down to peer at the girl.

"Silverbolt was carrying the remaining humans away from the battle when he got shot down. She was probably with them." Skydive answered.

Slingshot looked nauseas. Fireflight just grinned. "Cool." He said.

Ratchet ignored them all. "Don't pay them any mind little one," he murmured to the child with surprising gentleness, "what are you doing in there?"

The little girl blinked at him, but didn't answer.

Ratchet frowned at her a little. "You don't have to be afraid of us. We won't hurt you." He told her a bit more firmly.

But the little girl only stared and slowly shook her head.

"Look child," Ratchet said, trying to keep a hold on his patience, "you're not in trouble. Just please tell me what you're doing inside my friend."

The little girl raised her small hands close to her face and made a peculiar set of motions with them using slow, practiced movements. Then when Ratchet didn't do anything, she made them again but a little slower.

"Oh….slag." The medic finally murmured.

"What?" Fireflight asked, looking between Ratchet and the little girl. "What's she doing?"

"Talking," Ratchet said shortly as he held out his hand to the little girl and motioned for her to step on it so he could lift her out, "she can't hear us so she's talking with her hands."

Fireflight looked like he'd just told him that the little girl wasn't a girl at all, but rather a large seahorse that could live outside water and blew bubbles out of its nose.

"Huh?" He hummed. "What's that mean?"

"She's mute." Skydive provided.

"No," Ratchet said as he gently lifted the strange little girl up and deposited her carefully on a nearby counter, "it means she's deaf." Then before Fireflight could voice another huh, he added, "It means her audios don't function properly. She can't hear us."

Fireflight shared a questioning look with Air Raid. "So how can you tell her not to fall off the counter?" He asked.

Ratchet turned and scowled at the mech, rumbling darkly in his chest. "Because it means I can tap directly into her mind instead." He told him flatly.

Fireflight's optics lit up and he smacked one hand triumphantly into the other. "Oh, well that explains everything." He exclaimed.

The other Aerialbots only groaned. Slingshot face palmed at Fireflight's gullibility.

"She's deaf, not stupid Fireflight. A kid as old as her knows better then to walk right off a twenty foot countertop." Ratchet snapped as he left the little girl on the counter and briskly walked back to the unconscious Silverbolt. "But either way I still don't have time for this. Skydive, help me turn Silverbolt over before you go. The rest of you, _out_." He snapped at them before inspecting Silverbolt's injured side plating. Given the melted areas, it was probably more painful then the spinal injury, but hardly as dangerous. It could wait, especially since Silverbolt was still in stasis and couldn't feel much right now.

On his way out the door, Skydive looked over at the girl still standing on the counter. She stared back at him with large blue eyes.

Skydive looked back at Ratchet bent over Silverbolt and then back at the young human.

"What do we do with her? Should she be in here while you repair him?" He asked Ratchet as he watched the girl. The girl just watched him back. So far she hadn't smiled, frowned, or shown much of any emotion except for a kind of subtle curiosity, as if she was wondering about these strange creatures she now found herself with.

Skydive wanted to ask her if that really was what she was thinking, and if it wasn't, then what thoughts were running through her head. But of course she wouldn't have understood him if he had asked, and he couldn't understand her hand speak. Although given time he could fix that at least.

Ratchet paused his repairs long enough to look thoughtfully at the human child and then back at the scalpel equivalent in his hand. This _was _going to be fairly invasive since he'd probably have to do some repairs on the spine itself.

"It will be rather messy for awhile…" he mumbled, and then seeing the anxious look on Skydive's face added, "Not dangerously so Skydive. I just meant that going that deep means a lot of spurts from internal pressures and-"

Skydive blanched and held up his hands. "Ugh, I study tactics for a reason doc. I don't have the stomach for medicine."

Ratchet just shrugged and got back to work.

Skydive flinched from the surgery and quickly focused his attention on the girl. She was leaning to the side of him, trying to catch a glimpse of Silverbolt. Skydive quickly stepped to the right, cutting off her limited view. She looked up at him, for the first showing something other then curiosity. She looked worried.

She pointed at the mech on the medical table and made a series of signs with her other hand.

Skydive spread his hands apart helplessly. "I'm sorry little one. I don't understand."

The girl watched him with wide, frightened optics, but didn't repeat the signs.

Skydive sighed and glanced over his shoulder at Ratchet and his patient. He immediately regretted it.

"Come on human child," Skydive motioned the girl towards him quickly, "I need to get out of here and I don't think it'd be wise to leave you here. Come on now, it's alright, just step onto my hand and I'll carry you."

The girl gave his open palm a dubious look, but stepped on after one more anxious glance in Silverbolt's direction.

Skydive made sure she couldn't see him as he quickly left the room and prayed that Primus would keep him from puking all over Ratchet's clean medical bay.

...

To the little girl with the red backpack, the world had always been perfectly silent. Sometimes that was okay, like when she had been running through the airport and everyone else had been screaming. She hadn't heard them, but she was pretty sure all that noise would have hurt her ears if she had. Sometimes it wasn't okay, like when her first step-mama called everyone to Thanksgiving dinner and she hadn't heard her and had missed out on the first batch of rolls. There had been more cooking in the oven, but she'd had to wait another fifteen minutes for them.

And then sometimes, like now, it was pretty funny watching people trying to talk to her. She rather thought it was like watching TV with the sound turned down. Not that she knew what it was like to have the sound turned up though…

The little girl bit her lip and tried not to laugh as one of the flying bots – the one that looked like he had a box on his head – was trying to explain to her that he wasn't going to hurt her.

The girl rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking. Of course he wasn't going to hurt her. They weren't like those other mean robots that had blown up her plane yesterday. They were nice. If not a little screwy.

Just to mess with them, the girl tilted her head and blinked at them like she was confused by the robot in front of her.

The box-bot sighed and waved an arm as he gave up.

_Nuthin'._ He said to the other robots standing behind him. _She doesn't understand a thing I said. And I don't know how to make it any clearer._

The girl put a hand over her mouth to try and keep the laughter in, but they noticed her anyway. There were _lots _of ways he could have made that clearer. Writing it out for number one. She was deaf, not illiterate. And she was smart, she thought proudly, she could read second grade words even though she was only in first grade. It came with spending all of her free time at school with Ms. T whenever she could.

_What's she laughing at?_ One of the robots she didn't recognize - the one whose helmet made him look bald - asked.

The cat-eared robot she didn't know laughed. _Fireflight's face probably._ He joked.

The box-head robot glared at him. _Shut up Air Raid. How do you know she isn't laughing at you?_

Air Raid laughed again. _Because I wasn't dancing around like a blue-footed booby to try and get her attention._

_Who you callin' a booby?!_

_ You genius. Or do I need to dance it out for you?_

The girl started laughing as the started bickering like Lacy and Joshua had during Thanksgiving. She thought things were going pretty well. She already knew half their names after all.

She looked between the four robots standing over her. Fireflight was the one with the box head. Air Raid was the one with the cat ears.

And then there was Silverbolt. He was the one that had saved her.

_Did you find out her name yet?_

The girl barely caught the shape of the words that time. She turned her head towards the one that had spoken. It was the black and red one that had carried her out of the white robot's lair. He didn't talk much.

The other robots looked at each other and then at her.

_Well,_ said Fireflight carefully, _no not really_.

_I don't know if you noticed Skydive,_ Air Raid added, _but she's not that big on talking._

Skydive looked over at the human child standing on the counter of the Aerialbot's hanger. True, she was small and skinny, but he had been watching her as Fireflight made a fool of himself. She had watched him with her large, blue eyes and laughed whenever she thought the others weren't looking.

_Nah,_ Skydive said as he knelt down in front of the child and smiled, _she's a lot smarter then she lets on. Aren't you darling?_

The girl looked down at the counter shyly and then back up at Skydive with a child's overt innocence. She was hoping she looked too cute for the robot's suspicion.

Fireflight practically melted in front of her. _Aw! _He said as he smiled at her. _She's so cute! Just look at her Skydive, she's too sweet to be that sneaky._

The girl bit back her giggle as Skydive rolled his eyes at Fireflight. This was the most fun she'd had in her whole life. She didn't want Skydive to put an end to it so soon, even though so far she liked him best out of the four.

Skydive grinned and winked at her, as if he understood exactly what she was thinking.

Even though she knew he couldn't understand her, she still signed up at him, _And that's why you're my favorite._

The dark bot blinked at her, catching the hand motions she made, but the others didn't bother trying to figure out what they meant.

_Oh come on Skydive,_ the remaining unnamed bot said, _she's just some human whelp that got lost. What do we care what happens to her? Why's she even here?_ He demanded.

The girl shot the last bot a sharp look. She didn't like this bot as much as the others. He was mean. And he looked like he was bald. It was weird.

_ Whelps are puppies Slingshot. I think the word you're looking for here is 'waif'._ Skydive told him levelly as he straightened up. _And she's only here until we find out where her parents are. They must have gotten separated from her during the Decepticon attack at the airport. They're probably worried sick about her._

The girl felt her eyes widen slightly, although she tried to hide it. Her parents! She had forgotten all about them. What would they say if they found out where she was? Did they even know that the airport was nothing but a ruined field now?

She frowned at her hands. Lloyd and Stepmama Fran probably didn't, but she knew Stepmama Daisy would have heard something by now. She and her Mister were the ones that were worried sick, not Lloyd and her second step-mama. They wouldn't know until much, _much_ later.

But what would they do to her when they finally did figure out she wasn't coming?

A chill slid down the girl's spine. She didn't want to go back there. She never wanted to go back! And nothing anyone could say to her would ever make her change her mind.

The girl looked back up at the four robots in front of her as they talked amongst themselves.

_But how do we even find her parents? _Air Raid was asking. _We don't even know her name._

The other robots didn't have anything to say to that, but the girl's yellow eyebrows rose slightly. _"That's right,"_ she thought in the safety of her own mind, _"they don't know my name. They don't know anything about me at all."_

She glanced up at the robots towering above her from under her pale eyelashes as this realization fully sunk into her mind.

_"Maybe,"_ she thought slowly, _"maybe…it means that I won't have to leave…"_

_How's Silverbolt doing anyway?_ Fireflight suddenly interjected, breaking up the brewing argument between Skydive and Slingshot with his usual leap-frogging attention span.

The little girl actually didn't see his mouth shape the words when he first spoke them, but she couldn't help but notice the silence that followed as Fireflight, Slingshot, and Air Raid all fastened their eyes on their unofficial second-in-command. She looked up, wondering what had been said that had suddenly caught everybody's attention despite their vastly different personalities.

For a second, Skydive looked unsure about what to say to his three teammates. He glanced over at the little girl to see she was staring at him too, but now he wasn't sure if she knew what they were talking about.

_He's…_ Skydive tried to remember what Ratchet had said. _He's still unconscious, or at least he was when I left. His spinal strut was injured during the fight, and you saw the damage to his side._

The other three nodded, making the girl below them wonder again who they were talking about. Even Fireflight wasn't moving as much as before.

The who finally clicked into place and the girl felt her eyes widen. She didn't bother trying to hide it now as a cold lump of fear suddenly dropped into her stomach.

_Is Silverbolt okay? _She signed fervently, stepping towards the silent robots.

Air Raid saw her first. He nudged Fireflight standing next to him and pointed at her.

Skydive and Slingshot turned as well. _I'm, uh, I'm sorry what? _Skydive asked carefully.

The girl felt her heart begin to flutter like a hummingbird. _Is Silverbolt okay? _She signed again, forcing herself to go slow enough that her fingers weren't a blur.

Skydive and the others stared at her. Fireflight summed up their equal confusion with a shrug.

Heart starting to beat faster, the girl signed again with stronger motions, _Is. Silverbolt. Okay?_

Nothing.

The girl made to sign the words again, but then let her hands just drop to her side. What was the point of trying to talk to people that couldn't understand a word she said?

_He's got to be okay. _She signed halfhearted a moment later, needing to say it out loud. _He saved me. He's just got to be okay. If he falls asleep like Mama did then I don't want to stay._ She told them. _I want to stay with him and not nobody else._

They didn't know what to do with her hand signs she saw. Like most people she knew, they just didn't know how to react around her when they found out she couldn't hear like normal people.

_ He's got to be okay._ She signed again, the motions smaller then before, as if she was talking to herself now.

She didn't see Skydive look over at the others as her blue eyes drifted down sadly to her untied shoe laces.

"Why's she so sad all of sudden?" Fireflight asked the Aerialbot second worriedly.

Skydive looked down at the top of the girl's blonde head. He noticed even Slingshot didn't add his usual, "Who cares?"

Skydive looked down at the little girl again. "I think," he said slowly, "that she's worried about Silverbolt."

The other Aerialbots turned to look at the girl just in time to see her raise a hand and rub at her eyes.

For once Slingshot didn't sound so much snarky as freaked out.

"Whoa…" he said abruptly, pointing at the little girl, "what's she doing now?"

A drop of salt water hit the counter with a small splat.

"No!" Slingshot shouted, taking a drastic step away from the child as if she was suddenly radioactive. "No! Crying is so not allowed on base! No way! No how and…just no!" He finished somewhat lamely as he pointed at the girl again.

Skydive raised an optic ridge at him, and then pointedly ignored him by turning around and crouching down to the girl's eyelevel.

There was a clang behind him as Air Raid nudged Slingshot in the side. "What's the matter Sling? You can take on a batch of 'Cons but you can't stand up to a little girl in tears?" He laughed.

There was a sharper clang as Slingshot shoved Air Raid back.

Skydive ignored them and focused on not injuring the girl as he reached out and put a digit under her chin. He carefully lifted her chin up so that she was facing him instead of the countertop.

"Hey," he said softly, "hey, Silverbolt's gonna be okay darling." He told her firmly.

The little girl blinked watery eyes at him. Even Slingshot, standing ten feet behind them, could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

"He will." Skydive said again. "I promise."

The little girl sniffed and wiped her eyes again. She seemed to hesitate over something in her head, but before Skydive could ask what it was, she dashed forward and flattened herself against his neck.

It took the mech a moment to realize he was being hugged. It took him a moment longer to think through his surprise that he should somehow hug her back.

Since he couldn't give her a normal kind of hug, he wrapped a hand around her back just as carefully as he had lifted her chin a moment before. It felt kind of…nice, despite the inherit weirdness that seemed to come with hugging a small human.

And then Fireflight had to ruin the moment when he started singing behind him, "Skydive's got an admi~erer. Skydive's got an admi~erer…"

Without turning around, Skydive reached behind him and quickly smacked the other bot.

"Youch!" Fireflight shouted.

Skydive smiled as Fireflight jumped around holding his smarting knee joint while Air Raid and Slingshot loudly laughed at him.

The girl didn't even twitch. The noise didn't bother her after all.


	2. Chapter 2: Mama Silverbolt

:D I've been itching to put this up all week! And now I can! Yay! X)

Anyway, great big thank yous go to D-RockxIronhideForever, Birgitte LP, and Trapezoidal for reviewing (Yay! Thank you!) and the other wonderful people too of course who faved and alerted Skyangel such as Alalaya21, EvilPurpleCookiePenkeyMongui n, Randall Boggs, WarriorsSoul7, selen96, transformationsgirl, and TheInheritance. You guys are awesome! ::squee!::

And now no more top note. This chapter is already freakishly long (n_n;) so I'll let you get on your way and I hope you have a good weekend! ::excited hearts!:: :3

...

Skyangel

Chapter Two: Mama Silverbolt

Every circuit ached when Silverbolt finally woke up again. For a moment he thought he had been driven over by a Transformer sized steam roller, but after another moment he remembered that the steam roller's name had been named the New Hampshire State Airport/Skywarp and that one was now in pieces and the other had had a tree dropped on his head.

That memory immediately made Silverbolt feel a little better.

With a groan the concord plane heaved himself to a sitting position. He looked around as he sat, one hand pressed over his throbbing side, and realized he was in Ratchet's med bay. He must have been out for some time since the last thing he remembered was Prime and Skydive finding him in the forest.

A few more kliks of careful looking showed that Ratchet was somewhere else at the moment. Otherwise Silverbolt had no doubt that he would have already been whacked upside the head for moving when he wasn't supposed to.

"He'll just have to whack me later," Silverbolt muttered to himself as he sucked in air through his vents before swinging his legs over the side of the gurney. "Right now I gotta make sure the guys are alright."

The pain wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be. Evidently most of the damage had been to his back and side, leaving his legs intact. Although his left wing felt like it was sitting oddly against his back.

He decided to worry about that later as he hobbled out of the empty medical bay and directly angled towards the hanger bay he and the other Aerialbots had claimed when they'd first arrived on the _Ark_. It was one of the few parts of the grounded ship that still had access to open sky apart from the ship's ground level entrance. When the Aerialbots had first come to Earth after their creation on Cybertron that entrance had been the only thing open to the outside. Everything else, including the five bots' quarters, had been completely underground, cut off from the sight and feel of the sky and the open air they inherently craved. They had made due for the first couple of days, but when even Silverbolt had started to itch with being constantly underground, Optimus Prime had ordered the topmost hanger unburied from the side of the dormant volcano the _Ark_ was stuck in. Sadly nothing could be done about their living quarters since those were closer to the ship's central section where it was safer. But at least they had the hanger.

The five Autobot Seekers spent most of their time there now, with the hanger door always open unless the ship was in lockdown and under attack. But they weren't inside when that happened anyway.

Silverbolt was sure he would find the rest of his team there, and as the uphill hallways led him closer to the hanger bay, he was able to hear the voices of his friends coming from inside the large room.

"Ya know," he heard Fireflight saying cheerily to one of the other guys, "I don't think I've ever seen a human as small as her before."

That made Silverbolt pause in his slow creep towards the hanger bay. A small human? Here? What was he talking about?

"I know," Skydive answered him, "I was researching humans in general on Telatraan-1 and it seems that even for her relative age group, she is rather small and thin. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe she isn't underfed."

Silverbolt finally shuffled his way into the open doorway. He decided to stand there a moment so he could give his aching side a moment to adjust. Fireflight and Skydive were standing off to the side of the room where a small sitting area had been set up. Usually Skydive read through his history records there. Air Raid and Slingshot were in their usual places on the other side of the room playing what the humans called video games. Next to them, the hanger door had been thrown wide open, letting in the cool autumn breezes and crisp November sunshine.

The cool air washed over the tired plane, instantly making Silverbolt feel somewhat better. It was too still and stuffy deeper inside the ship. At first he had thought he would get used to it eventually, but now he wasn't so sure.

Fireflight was the first one to notice him. "Silverbolt!" He cried with his usual enthusiasm. "You're awake!"

He jogged over as the others looked up from whatever they were doing. Air Raid and Slingshot paused their racing game before coming over while Skydive adjusted something on the far countertop and doing the same.

"Man," Fireflight said when he reached him, pointedly looking his leader up and down, "you look like Pit."

Silverbolt slid him a flat look. "Thanks. I didn't notice."

"Does Ratchet know you've left the medbay?" Air Raid asked.

Slingshot snorted. "You mean his hall of torment right Raid?"

"No," Silverbolt answered Air Raid as the jet shoved his teammate, "and I'd like to keep it that way as long as possib-whoa."

He stumbled against the doorframe as his balance failed him for a split instant. Four pairs of hands immediately reached out to steady him.

"Maybe you should sit down." Skydive suggested in his usual levelheaded way.

Silverbolt shook his head. "I'm fine," he insisted, although he didn't try and take his weight off of the door frame quite yet, "I just got dizzy for a sec."

Skydive stared at him in a rare show of stubbornness. "Sit down or I'm calling Ratchet." He threatened.

Silverbolt rolled his optics at him. "Fine." He grumbled. "Just don't go all mother hen on me."

Fireflight gave him a silly grin as Skydive helped Silverbolt into a chair on the other side of the room. "Yeah," he said, "hen mothering is your job Silverbolt. No switching rolls on us now fearless leader."

Silverbolt rolled his optics again as the others laughed. "That job's a whole lot tougher with you four idiots running around. If I'm the mother hen you're all chicks."

"Isn't 'chicks' another word for 'girls'?" Air Raid stage whispered to Slingshot.

Silverbolt gave up as he slowly lowered himself into a chair with a groan. "You guys are hopeless," he told them as he looked up at them from his seat. He turned serious as he looked them over for signs of damage. "You guys alright after that fight?" He asked them.

Four heads nodded dutifully before Fireflight, Slingshot, Air Raid, and Skydive answered in a bizarre kind of order:

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Sure thing."

"No trouble here."

Silverbolt looked them over again just to be sure, then nodded when he didn't see any signs of new welds or dented plating.

"Good," he said as he leaned his head back over the edge of the chair, "I can sleep easier."

However all thoughts of resting disappeared when he caught sight of a familiar blotch of red sitting on the countertop behind him. It was an upside down backpack. Standing next to it was an upside down girl.

Silverbolt blinked at the girl. The girl watched him with wide blue eyes.

"Oh!" Fireflight exclaimed, realizing what Silverbolt was staring at. He rushed over to the girl on the counter as Silverbolt lifted his head, turning the world back on its proper side. He half turned around in utter confusion as Fireflight came rushing back, the girl now held carefully in his large hands.

"She followed us home!" The jet-former exclaimed as he darted back and forth between the table next to Silverbolt's chair, the countertop, and the table again. "We don't know her name but she's been awfully worried about you. Isn't she cute?"

Silverbolt didn't have words to answer his friend. It seemed that the girl-child had stolen them all with her sudden appearance.

As soon as Fireflight was close enough to the table, the girl jumped out of his hands, landing with a thump against the solid surface. If Silverbolt hadn't been so shocked by her presence, he would have paid more attention to Skydive's concerned hum when the child jumped out of Fireflight's hand.

As it was he was too busy staring at the child. She was small, with blonde hair and blue eyes and mismatched socks that reached up to her bony knees, although one had fallen down around her ankle. Her yellow and green dress would have reached her knees too if it hadn't been torn down at the hem, probably when she'd been running in the collapsing airport.

She ran up to the edge of the table closest to Silverbolt and abruptly stopped at the very edge. Then she looked up at him with wide, worried eyes as she danced around the edge, trying to find a way closer to the injured plane.

"She must have been at that airport the Decepticons attacked," Skydive expanded Fireflight's earlier explanation, "and we think she's been asking about you ever since we found her."

"You think?" Silverbolt asked, optics never leaving the small child still leaning towards him from the table's edge.

"She's a bit… hard to understand." Skydive told him. He probably would have explained that more if Silverbolt hadn't suddenly asked, "Wait a minute. How in the world does a human that small just _follow you home?_" He looked up at Fireflight, and then realized that was just asking for trouble before turning to Skydive instead.

"She sort of…" Skydive looked away, trying to think of a good way to tell Silverbolt what had happened without freaking him out too much. That much stress probably wasn't good on the new welds on his side, especially since he'd probably strained them plenty on the trip up here. "…snuck aboard Jetfire when he took us home. We didn't notice her until we were already here."

Silverbolt was about to ask just how exactly _that_ had worked when Fireflight suddenly blurted out, "She popped out of your chest!"

Silverbolt looked at him. Then found that he had no words to that except for, "…what?"

Fireflight nodded excitedly as Skydive smacked a hand to his face. "Yeah, Ratchet was about to cut ya open to make sure you were okay when she just sorta appeared out of your chest storage compartment." From the smile on Fireflight's face, you would have thought that he'd just told Silverbolt he'd just won the lottery.

Silverbolt just tried not to think about Ratchet cutting him open. "Uh…huh…" he mumbled instead.

"We think she must have been one of the humans you tried to fly to safety, and then when you transformed back into your robot mode, she got stuck in the storage space with the seats." Skydive said calmly.

It was still weird, no matter how calmly he said it.

Silverbolt nodded slowly. "Now that you say that, I _do_ remember seeing her backpack in the crowd of humans." He remembered the bright red blotch he had first seen in the dark airport, and then later inching closer to his feet as he held the airport ceiling off of the fragile humans. "But she was in my storage? Seriously?" He asked in disbelief. He was having trouble wrapping his processor around that idea.

The others nodded, their looks saying they were having difficulty with the thought too. Fireflight was the only one that didn't look weirded out though.

"Hey!" He snapped his fingers. "Isn't that how humans are born?"

His friends blinked at him strangely. "What?" Silverbolt asked, wondering what this had to do with anything.

Fireflight nodded quickly again. "Yeah, baby humans come out of this weird organic storage compartment the femmes have and poof! That makes the adults moms and dads, like Sparkplug is to Spike."

An evil light lit up Air Raid's optics. "Yeah, that means Silverbolt really _is_ a mom!" He joked.

Slingshot laughed and shook Silverbolt's hand with a sly grin. "Congratulations fearless leader, it's not your species, but it's a girl."

Silverbolt frowned at his three laughing brothers and automatically turned to Skydive for some backup.

Unfortunately, Skydive was holding back his own laughter. "Well it's not like you weren't the den mother already. What's one more chick, right Silverbolt?"

Silverbolt glared levelly at the other four Autobot Seekers.

"Ha, ha, you're all hilarious. Stop before I bust a seam." He told them in voice flatter then a popped tire.

That only made the other Aerialbots laugh harder.

Silverbolt probably could have gone on staring at the others for a good long while, but something suddenly jumping onto his leg cut him off.

He looked down as the others went on laughing to see that same, strange little girl now standing on his knee. She must have finally gotten the courage to jump down from the table, he thought.

The little girl stared up at him uncertainly, as if she wasn't sure he wanted her standing on him, but when he didn't shoo her away, she tentatively crept closer.

Silverbolt watched her walk up his leg to his torso where she studied his fresh welds and the plating Ratchet had re-pounded back into shape.

She placed a careful hand on one of the fresh welds and looked up at him with wide eyes. He got the distinct impression she was worried about him, that she knew he had gotten hurt saving her and the other humans, but for some reason she didn't say anything…

She made a curious hand motion with her left hand. Her right was still on his side. She was so small he could hardly feel her weight on his leg, much less her hand against his side.

She made the strange gesture again, but most of the hopeful expectation had gone out of it.

Silverbolt nudged Skydive standing next to him. "Hey," he muttered as he continued to watch the small child, "what's she doing?"

The others managed to stop their laughing at his expense. "Ratchet called it talking with her hands. Apparently she has some sort of audio malfunction." Skydive answered.

"He means she can't hear anything." Fireflight put in more simply.

Silverbolt looked over at them in surprise. "At all?" He asked. That was possible? He turned to the little girl again. "You can't hear at all?"

The little girl smiled at him grimly, as if she knew what he was saying anyway. She made another precise motion, this time with both hands.

"Nope," Air Raid said as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched the girl as well, "she hasn't said a word since we found her."

"Although she did give a sort of squeak once when Air Raid surprised her a little while ago." Fireflight told him. "So her vocal processor still works."

"Only humans learn to speak by imitating their caretakers," Skydive told him. "and since she can't hear, she never learned to speak."

"And that's why you don't know her name?" Silverbolt asked. "Because she can't tell you."

Fireflight nodded once, smiling like usual. "Yep." He answered.

"Huh," Silverbolt mumbled as he looked down at the little girl, "poor kid."

The girl blinked up at him with her wide eyes and then held her arms up to him as if asking for something.

"Oh! Oh!" Fireflight practically hopped in place. "I know what that means! It means she wants you to pick her up. I saw some small human do it on TV once on the family channel."

Silverbolt ignored Air Raid and Slingshot's groans of embarrassment at the admission. "Is that what you want? You want me to pick you up?" He asked the small human, forgetting she couldn't hear him.

The girl nodded anyway and smiled at him, reaching for him with her arms again.

Careful of her small frame, Silverbolt gently scooped her up in his cupped hands, making the girl fall back with a gurgle he eventually realized was her version of a giggle.

He lifted her to his optic level, wanting to get a better look at her. She was still just as small and scrawny as he had first thought, maybe a little more so, but close up she looked a bit more raggedy then she had on the table.

That was all he got a chance to see though because as soon as she was high enough, the girl leapt from his palm to his shoulder, disappearing from his line of sight. He froze, afraid of hurting her or sending her toppling to her death, as he felt her shuffling around close to his head. He relaxed a little when he felt her sit down and wrap her arms around his neck as best she could. She patted his cheek a couple of times a moment later as if she was trying to tell him she was happy he was alright.

"Guys," Silverbolt whispered hoarsely, "guys, little help here."

Air Raid, Fireflight, Slingshot, and Skydive all exchanged looks, and then busted out laughing again.

"Aw," Slingshot crooned mockingly, "but you two look so cute together."

"She looks like a baby bird sitting on your shoulder like that!" Fireflight told him.

"Yes," Skydive added with a grin, "she really has taken a shine to you hasn't she?"

"Sorry Mama Silverbolt, I wouldn't even dream of separating a mother hen from her chick." Air Raid laughed.

Silverbolt frowned at them but didn't move from his stiff position, still mindful of the girl clinging to him. "I am _so_ going to get you guys for this." He grumbled at them threateningly.

They only laughed harder.

But their laughter abruptly died when a new voice snapped out from the doorway behind them.

"AHA! I _knew_ you four were behind this! What part of 'Silverbolt needs his rest' did you flybot idiots not understand?" Ratchet demanded as he stomped into the room.

The Aerialbots still on their feet immediately stepped away from the angry medic. "We didn't do it!" Fireflight shouted before hiding behind Slingshot.

Ratchet glared at him over Sivlerbolt's shoulder as he inspected the Concorde's side and back.

"Right," Ratchet muttered with a snort, "because I believe you like I believe the twins when they say they had nothing to do with my furniture ending up welded to my ceiling last week."

Fireflight sighed. "Oh good." He said in relief.

"They didn't do anything Ratchet," Silverbolt stepped in before Fireflight could get more then a few disbelieving looks, "I just had to get out of that room for awhile. I was starting to feel cramped up."

Ratchet snorted again as he roughly bent the mech forward so he could inspect his patched wing, but didn't say anything else on the matter.

"And where's that girl?" He demanded roughly instead. "Did you lot lose her too?"

The four standing bots withered under the medic's glare.

"Well it's not like we're organic baby-sitters Ratchet." Slingshot snapped. Unfortunately, his defensive words only made them look guiltier.

Ratchet glared harder at them.

Air Raid sighed expansively. "We didn't lose her Ratch'. The kid's right there, with Silverbolt."

"Mama Silverbolt." Fireflight muttered with a grin.

Air Raid and Slingshot snickered.

Ratchet only huffed at them, finally catching sight of the child sitting on Silverbolt's shoulder, hiding against his neck.

He held out a hand for her. "Come one sweetheart, you can't stay there while I move him. You'll only fall off and hurt yourself." He told her gently, surprising the laughing Aerialbots.

But the girl only shook her head and buried her face in Silverbolt's neck. Obviously she wasn't going anywhere.

Ratchet's optics narrowed thoughtfully and then he turned to look out the open hanger bay door. Outside the sky was streaked with dying sunlight.

"It's getting late." He said almost to himself. "We'll have to find somewhere for her to sleep for the night."

"You mean here?" Slingshot asked loudly. "Like, on the _Ark_? Why can't she just stay with the Witwicky's?" He demanded irritably.

Ratchet glared at him. "Because I haven't had time to contact them!" He snapped back. "Unless _you_ thought to call Sparkplug?"

Slingshot's optics slid to the side. "…no…" he mumbled.

Ratchet uncrossed his arms from his chest. "That's what I thought."

While they had been arguing, Silverbolt had been trying to get a better look of the human sitting against his neck, but of course it hadn't worked.

"You know," he interrupted the pair before either side could fashion anymore arguments for their cause, "I could look after her, just for tonight."

Ratchet and his brothers looked over at him. Fireflight and Skydive looked somewhat disappointed. "Aw…" Fireflight groaned, "but why you? I could watch her too!" He whined.

"You _will_ be in the medbay all night." Skydive put in, hoping that maybe he could watch the soft little creature tonight.

"Well yeah, but that's the point." Silverbolt defended himself. "There's no place safer then the medbay. And besides, it's like you said," he said as he lifted a hand up to the little girl, "she's taken some sort of liking to me anyway."

Reluctantly, the girl slid off of Silverbolt's shoulder and into his hand. She stood there, looking disappointed, as she fiddled with a string unraveling from her dress' sleeve.

Automatically, the Aerialbots turned toward Ratchet, deferring to his higher rank and longer experience with humans to make the final decision.

The medic narrowed his optics at the five bots watching him, three more expectantly then the others.

"Hrmm…" he grumbled thoughtfully, "well she is very quiet…and I certainly trust Silverbolt over you," he nodded at Fireflight, "even injured."

"Aw…" Fireflight groaned in disappointment.

"And I will be there to make sure your state doesn't change…" Ratchet said thoughtfully as he looked between the girl and the Aerialbot leader. The girl suddenly yawned, although she tried to hide it with both hands.

"…I suppose it'd be alright." The medic finally admitted.

Silverbolt felt himself smile, although he hadn't known he was looking forward to keeping an optic on the little girl until Ratchet had said it was alright.

"Thanks Ratchet."

"Man." Fireflight moaned.

Skydive just sighed in resignation.

"Great," Slingshot broke in, "now that that's settled, how about you get the heck out of here so Air Raid and I can finish our game."

"Oh! I call winner!" Fireflight immediately perked up.

Ratchet rolled his optics at them. "The concern you have for your leader is astounding." He muttered as he got a shoulder under Silverbolt and heaved him to his feet, Skydive coming forward to take the girl so they wouldn't have to worry about her slipping and falling.

Air Raid, Slingshot, and Fireflight ignored him as they ran back over to the television screen. The screech of wheels and cheering crowds followed the strange group as they left the Aerialbot hanger.

"Hey Ratchet?" Skydive spoke up as they made their way down the halls. Silverbolt was just glad that they were going down hill now. Up had been a pain in the aft.

"What?" Ratchet grumbled when Skydive didn't immediately go on.

"Well I was just wondering, how're we going to find somebody that can speak the little girl's hand language? I've never even heard of it before now." He admitted.

Ratchet grumbled something as they finally stumbled their way into the med bay. "That-" Ratchet said as he finally set Silverbolt onto the empty recharge berth he'd deserted earlier, "-is actually the last thing I'm worried about right now." He said with a whoosh of air as Silverbolt took his own weight again.

Ratchet turned toward the other Autobot Seeker. "I already know someone who can talk with her. I'll call him tomorrow and ask him to come by. It should be fine. My real concern is how we're going to find her parents." He said as he frowned in thought.

"Oh," Skydive said before letting the medic think in peace. "Well goodnight darling." The tall mech murmured to the human child standing in his hands.

The little girl beamed up at him and then hugged his thumb by way of goodnight.

Skydive chuckled as he handed the little girl to Silverbolt. "I hope you feel better in the morning." He told his friend before going back up to the hanger bay. Maybe the guys would feel like turning the game into a tournament instead. That and he'd left his latest book up there anyway.

Silverbolt leaned back against the recharge berth with a sigh as Ratchet went back into his office to do…Ratchet-y things.

"Well small one," he mumbled to the little girl as he shifted her from his hand to his chest now that he was laying down, "I guess you'll just recharge with me tonight and we'll find your parents in the morning."

The little girl didn't make anymore of her hand signs, although that might have been because she had to cover her mouth again as another yawn escaped.

Silverbolt chuckled tiredly. "You and me both kid." He mumbled as she rubbed her eye with a fist. "You've probably had just as exciting a day as I've had. And you didn't even get to sleep on the plane earlier." He thought about that. "Although in my defense I was technically unconscious and on my way to see Doctor Hatchet so I guess I wouldn't really call that relaxing either."

"Who were going to see?" Ratchet's voice echoed ominously over the top of the partition.

"Erm…" Silverbolt muttered with a concerned look at the curtain that hid the rest of the med bay, along with the overworked medic, from his sight, "…nothing!" He shouted out hastily.

The girl sat down cross legged high on his chest and stared at him. Silverbolt grinned at her and she grinned back automatically.

"He actually doesn't like it when we call him that." Silverbolt whispered to her. Even knowing she couldn't hear him, it still felt nice to talk to her.

The girl giggled a little and put a finger to her mouth as if she understood to keep the secret.

Silverbolt chuckled, and then quickly stopped when it made his side hurt. "Oh, shouldn't've done that." He groaned.

The girl watched him worriedly, sitting up on her knees to get a better look of his face. She waited for him to look at her again, but when he didn't even open his eyes, she patted him carefully on his chin.

_Are you okay? _She asked him hesitantly when he slowly looked over at her again.

She saw his eyebrows crease together slightly and she blew out a dejected sigh. He didn't understand her. Of course he didn't understand her. Why should he? He didn't need to understand sign language to save her from the meanies that had squashed her plane. But still…she had hoped.

She sighed again.

Silverbolt shifted tiredly against the metal bed. "What is it little one? You honestly worried about me?" He asked her, exhaustion slurring his speech slightly.

The little girl nodded, even though he didn't notice that either.

"Nah, of course you don't. Why would you worry about me when you're probably worrying about yourself? A human as small as you so far from home and surrounded by alien robots? You've got to be scared, especially when your parents don't even know where you are." He mumbled, drifting closer and closer to sleep.

_But I'm not scared._ The girl tried to tell him. _And I don't want them to know where I am. If they know then I won't be able to stay here with you._

Silverbolt didn't say anything. Silverbolt was asleep.

The girl watched him with worried eyes, hands held uncertainly in front of her. Well there certainly wasn't any harm in saying it now, she thought to herself.

_I want to stay here with you. _She told him mutely.

But her rescuer just went on sleeping, unaware of the little figure watching him with concern.

After a few silent moments, the girl managed to give him a small smile and patted his chin again before crawling over to where his hand was resting on his chest. With a little bit of effort she wriggled under his fingers and curled up against the ball of his thumb. It didn't take long for the strange little girl to finally fall asleep under her makeshift blanket.

...

Ratchet's expert arrived the next morning. He got there fairly early, but that was mainly because the Witwicky's gave him a ride.

"So what did Ratch' want to talk to you about Chip?" Spike asked as Bumblebee drove right into the _Ark's _main floor before flipping up part of his side so Chip's wheelchair could roll out.

"I don't know Spike," Chip answered his friend as he rolled onto the ship. "He was busy with Silverbolt so he didn't say. You don't know, do you Bumblebee?"

There was a flurry of shifting metal parts as Bumblebee got to his feet next to the two boys. "Sorry guys, I don't know either. But Ironhide told me earlier that Ratchet said Silverbolt's doing better today, so I don't think it's about him."

"Well that's good news at any rate." Chip said as he looked around the large room that housed Teletraan-1. He expected to see Prime or Ratchet or whoever it was that was manning the complex computer station standing in front of the massive screen, but the room was empty. "Say, where _is _everybody?" He asked.

Bumblebee and Spike looked around too. "I dunno." Bumblebee said, sounding a little confused. "It's not like them to leave Teletraan-1 by himself like this."

Spike started walking deeper into the ship, waving his friends after him. "Well come on then," he told them, "let's go find out where everybody is."

...

The next morning, Silverbolt was woken by a strange sound vibrating against his neck. It didn't wake him right away, but it was strangely persistent, and the longer he left it alone – thinking it would go away on its own – the louder it got.

Finally, after the fifth time the noise buzzed just under his audios, he gave up ignoring it and opened his optics to see what was going on.

At first he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, only the ugly orange walls of his room. And then he realized it wasn't his room. It was the med bay.

He frowned in confusion at the wall facing him. _"What am I doing in the med-?"_ He started to think.

Memory crashed over his worn out processor.

"Oh…" he mumbled, "right."

He went to sit up, but his processor smacked him again to remind him about the small girl currently using his hand as a tent.

After blinking open his optics, Silverbolt carefully lifted his first two fingers to see if the girl was still sleeping, only she wasn't there. He frowned slightly and tried to lift his head a little to get a better look under his hand, when he felt something warm slide down his shoulder with a sleepy mumble.

The Aerialbot leader froze, listening for anything else, but the mumble only trailed off and disappeared. Without moving the rest of his body, he looked as far down as he physically could, but he still couldn't see the thing slouched against his neck. He was pretty sure it was the little human, but after that disconcerting rumbling, he wasn't as sure as he'd like to be.

Of course then the disconcerting rumbling sound appeared again, just to mess with him.

"Ratchet," Silverbolt hissed as loudly as he could without waking the human he couldn't see, "_Ratchet_!"

The CMO didn't appear, however his newest assistant did step past the partition somewhat nervously.

"Ratchet's not here," First Aid told him hesitantly, "Is something wrong Silverbolt?"

Silverbolt had his own reservations about the younger, less experienced bot, especially since he didn't know near as much about humans as Ratchet did, but it looked like he'd have to do.

"Are humans supposed to rumble?" He asked in a loud whisper.

First Aid blinked at him like he was wondering if maybe it was the other bot's head that needed the most attention right now and not his spine. "What?" He asked in confusion.

Silverbolt slowly lifted his opposite hand and pointed at the warm thing still glue to his neck. "This human that followed us home yesterday," he explained, "she's rumbling and I don't know why."

Cautiously – First Aid had hardly ever been around humans before – the younger medic stepped around the recharge berth and peered at the small blonde creature curled up against Ratchet's patient.

"Well," he said slowly after some extensive peering, "I think it's still sleeping. Maybe it's some noise that humans make in their sleep. Or when they're happy, like those domestic furry creatures they keep for companionship." He guessed.

It took Silverbolt a moment to translate the other bot's meaning. "They're called cats First Aid," he told him first, "and I don't think humans purr like that."

First Aid shrugged in confusion. He had never claimed to know anything on the matter. "Say, where'd this small human come from anyway?"

"I told you," Silverbolt said, only somewhat patient, "we found her at the airport the Decepticons attacked yesterday and she sort of…followed us home."

First Aid raised an optic ridge at him. "All the way from New Hampshire?" He asked incredulously.

Silverbolt sighed. "It's a long story." He told him. "And I think a more important question is what's with her fascination with my neck?"

First Aid glanced over Silverbolt's anxious tone as he stooped down to look at the sleeping girl again. "Maybe she got cold during the night." He suggested. "Ratchet likes to keep it cold in here. Says it facilitates healing, or at least cuts down on whining cause the twins are usually too busy shivering to make much noise. And with all those primary power conduits running through there, necks _are_ awfully warm." He pointed out.

Silverbolt frowned slightly. That was probably the most sense he'd heard out of the younger bot that morning. "Well can you get her off? She's starting to freak me out just lying there. How do I know she doesn't have one of her digits in a joint or something?" He asked nervously.

First Aid leaned down a little more, but then shook his head. "No need. I think she's waking up."

A small, sleepy, moan drifted up from the left, just under Silverbolt's head, making the large bot freeze. In truth he _was _worried about hurting the little girl, especially when she was this close to him, but for some reason not being able to _see_ her was making Silverbolt's internal hydraulic pressure rise a good amount.

Silverbolt didn't even move his optics as the sleepy sound was followed by a yawn. Slight movement against his neck and shoulder made him go so still that for a minute First Aid thought he looked like he'd just been hit by Wheeljack's immobilizer.

The medical bot watched the organic as she slowly sat up, rubbing her half open eyes with her fists. He watched as she just as slowly looked around, taking in the non-descript walls of the medical bay. She blinked when her sleepy gaze landed on him. She stared at him a long moment, as if trying to decide if she knew him or not.

First Aid just waved at her with one hand. "Good morning small organic femmeling." He greeted her.

The girl fumbled a wave back at him. But his presence must have reminded her that she wasn't in her own bed – or in a bed at all really, at least not one meant for humans – because she slowly looked on her other side and craned her neck up so she could look up at Silverbolt.

First Aid watched as the human girl smiled widely, despite the sleep in her eyes, before slowly getting to her hands and knees and stubbornly crawling up onto the other mech's chest.

Same smile still in place, she sat down in front of Silverbolt's chin, just far enough away so that he could look at her easily enough.

"She's so tiny." First Aid observed with fascination.

Silverbolt dared to move now that he could see the human child. He rose slowly though, carefully propping himself up on his elbows so he could look at her better.

The girl just grinned at him and waved, a cheerier motion then she'd given First Aid.

The younger mech noticed. "Why's she so attached to you Silverbolt?" He asked sounding curious.

Silverbolt just shrugged, which made the girl fall backwards with a stunted giggle. "Wish I knew." He told First Aid.

Before the younger medic could ask anything else, the girl suddenly rumbled again. The two bots watched as she looked down at her middle and looked back up at them somewhat unhappier then before. As they watched, she rubbed her stomach and pointed at her mouth.

"What's that mean?" First Aid asked the girl, optics never leaving her smaller frame.

The girl looked up at him with sad eyes as she rumbled again. She wrapped her small arms around her middle and danced in place.

The bots watched her curiously. "Why won't she speak?" First Aid asked Silverbolt quietly.

Silverbolt cupped a hand around the girl before sitting up. "She can't," he answered the younger mech as he swung his legs over the side of the berth, "something about malfunctioning audios and not being able to learn from her guardians."

First Aid watched him as Silverbolt brought the little girl closer to his optic level. "Oh."

Silverbolt ignored him. "So what's the matter little one?" He asked the girl, not knowing what else to do. "Why is your frame creaking?"

The little girl pointed at her open mouth again before clutching her stomach as if it hurt.

Silverbolt frowned. "You feeling alright darling?" He asked worriedly.

The little girl shook her head, large eyes making her look small and pitiful.

"Poor kid," First Aid said behind Silverbolt, "should I go get Ratchet? Maybe he'll know what to do for her."

Silverbolt looked over at him. "Do you know where he is?"

The look on First Aid's face clearly said that he didn't. "Well, er…"

Silverbolt sighed as he lifted the girl up to his shoulder. She stepped on without a sound. Silverbolt waited for her to steady herself before he braced himself with one hand against the bed. He tensed, expecting it to hurt as he carefully got his feet on the floor.

"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea Silverbolt-" First Aid tried to stop him.

But Silverbolt stood up anyway. To his surprise his wounds didn't hurt near as bad as they had yesterday. His side only gave a mild stab in protest, but even that spike of pain dulled down after a moment of anxious waiting.

He released a sigh of relief. "Thank you Primus," he muttered before beginning to walk out of the med bay.

"Wait wait wait!" First Aid said in a hurry as he chased after the other bot. It didn't take much to catch him, especially since Silverbolt stopped to see what the younger mech wanted.

"What?" He asked somewhat grumpily.

First Aid looked at him like he was mad. "You can't just leave!" He protested.

Silverbolt and the girl looked at each other as best they could. "Why not?" Silverbolt asked when he turned back to First Aid.

Somehow First Aid didn't think, _"Because Ratchet will take me apart if I just let you go,"_ seemed like a good answer, so he settled for, "But what about Ratchet?"

Silverbolt blinked at him. "What about him?"

"Well," First Aid stumbled, "are-aren't you, um, well, aren't you worried about what he'll do when he, ah, finds you?"

"First Aid," Silverbolt said slowly, "Ratchet's the one I'm looking for. I _want_ to find him."

"Oh," First Aid said slowly, as if he was having trouble wrapping his processor around such a crazy idea, "right."

Silverbolt just sighed and hobbled out of the med bay. "Come on little one," he told the little girl sitting on his shoulder, "we'll try Telatraan-1's room first."

…

He never made it that far. He hadn't even made it half way there before a shout made him stop in the hallway.

"Hey Bolt! You're awake!"

Silverbolt turned around automatically. "Guys," he said in some surprise, "what are you doing up this early?" He was looking at Fireflight when he said that.

Skydive and Air Raid shared a confused look, Slingshot standing irately off to the side like he usually did. It was Fireflight that laughed.

"Early? You need to have your chronometer checked out Bolt. It's almost eleven."

Silverbolt jerked back a little in surprise. He'd never slept in so late in his life, but the surprise wasn't enough to keep him from adding with a straight face, "Well that's still early for you Fireflight."

The others laughed at the poor jet's expense.

Slingshot just snickered as he grabbed Fireflight's arm and pulled him away. "Ah, quit your moping. He's right and you know it. Now come on, Air Raid and I were going to go find those lambo twins for a rematch and you're coming with us."

"Ah…" Fireflight whined as Slingshot dragged him away, "but why?"

Air Raid quickly caught up with them after telling Silverbolt he'd catch him and Skydive later. "Because we need a referee."

"But you all move too fast. I always miss half the calls." Fireflight reminded them.

The other two shared a sneaky look over Fireflight's head and chuckled. "Yeah, we know."

Silverbolt sighed as they disappeared into the ship. "Now why do I get the feeling that I'm going to get a call from Prime later about a fight breaking out between them, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe?" He asked Skydive standing next to him.

The other Aerialbot grinned a little. "Because you can predict the future."

Silverbolt just shook his head as Skydive looked over at the girl sitting on his leader's shoulder. He smiled at her. "Good morning little one." He asked, holding his hand out to her.

The girl jumped down to his palm without complaint and hugged his thumb like she had the night before.

Skydive's smile grew a little more. "I'm glad to see you too darling." He told her. "How are you doing today? Did you sleep well?"

The girl nodded happily. And then that disconcerting rumbling, louder then all the times before, appeared again, making Skydive draw back from the sound.

The little girl frowned and wrapped her arms around her stomach, sitting down suddenly in Skydive's palm.

Skydive's optic ridges creased worriedly as he watched her. "What's wrong with her?" He asked somewhat nervously.

Silverbolt shrugged helplessly. "I don't know," he told his friend as he carefully rubbed the girl's back with a finger, not wanting to hurt her, "but she keeps doing that. I was looking for Ratchet to ask him about it."

"Maybe she's angry with us? For picking her up all the time?" Skydive guessed.

"Or maybe it's an internal timer vibrating?" Silverbolt thought out loud. "Like those things refueling establishments give humans that are waiting for their seats. Bumblebee was telling us about them the other day."

Skydive nodded thoughtfully. "So…it's an alarm?"

The girl vibrated again and she groaned before flopping back in Skydive's hand.

"Then why doesn't she turn it off?" Skydive asked with a look at Silverbolt.

The other bot shrugged. "Internal malfunction?" He guessed.

"Who's malfunctioning?"

Both Aerialbots turned towards the new voice, and then when they didn't see anybody immediately, they looked down and saw three smaller figures coming towards them.

"Oh, hey Spike," Silverbolt addressed the boy that had spoken, "we were just…"

In Skydive's hand, the little girl leaned over the side to see who Silverbolt was talking to now. She gasped when she saw it was two human boys. Ones she'd never seen before. What were they doing here? They hadn't come to take her away already, had they?

Afraid of the answer, the little girl huddled back in the middle of Skydive's hand. She didn't want the other humans to see her.

Silverbolt noticed her cowering and, not sure what he was supposed to do now, quickly changed what he had been about to say. "…trying to figure something out is all." He told the humans instead.

Chip and Spike shared confused looks as they caught the skip in the bot's words. "Trying to figure what out?" Chip asked cautiously.

"Oh," Skydive said slowly with a look at his leader to try and get an idea of what he was supposed to say, "ya know, just….stuff."

The boys shared a look at the lame finish. They probably would have said something about it too, but just then Bumblebee got a glimpse of the small thing huddling in Skydive's hand.

"Hey!" He said loudly, face lighting up in excitement. "Where'd you come from?"

Before any of the others could stop him, Bumblebee reached up and swooped up the child in Skydive's hand, much to everyone's surprise.

The little girl squeaked as hands as big as her suddenly appeared and stole her away from Skydive. She wriggled and squirmed, trying to get back to the safety of Skydive's hand, but the new hands had gotten her good.

She felt a scream come out of her throat, making it buzz before it left her mouth. Her eyes were screwed shut as she flailed so she didn't see what the horrible snatcher looked like, but when he didn't let her go she gave another terrified shriek.

"Bumblebee!" Silverbolt shouted at the other mech. "Put her down!"

The stunned Bumblebee immediately dropped the girl. She landed feet first on the floor and then before any of the strangers could snatch her again, she darted behind Silverbolt.

When no one came to drag her away, she dared to peek out from behind the flying Autobot's massive foot.

The two humans and the yellow bot were staring at her, so she ducked back out of sight.

"What the heck?" Spike asked no one in particular.

"It's a little girl!" Bumblebee said in surprise. "But," he looked up at Silverbolt and Skydive with cheerless optics, "why'd she scream when I picked her up? She's not…scared of me, is she?"

From the look on Bumblebee's face that might as well have been the worst thing that could have happened to him on Earth.

"Don't worry about it Bumblebee," Spike told his friend, "I'm sure you just took her by surprise as all."

The girl peeked out again from behind Silverbolt's leg, blinking frightful blue eyes at them.

Bumblebee's shoulders slumped a little more. "Yeah, sure." He mumbled as he scuffed a foot against the floor of the _Ark_.

"So where'd she come from anyway?" Chip asked.

Silverbolt looked down at the little girl standing close behind him, and then up at Skydive.

::She's terrified of them.:: He sent across the Aerialbot's private channel. ::Maybe we should just keep her to ourselves and go find Ratchet right away.::

Silverbolt watched as Skydive started to think things through like he usually did. Silverbolt just looked down at the girl again in concern. He didn't like seeing her so scared and he wished he could do something to make her feel better. Or at least tell her that Bumblebee was actually a very nice bot. He had just gotten over excited was all.

And then he noticed she wasn't really watching Bumblebee anymore. Instead she had her wide eyes pinned on Chip and Spike.

Now he was confused. What was she actually afraid of? The bot that had picked her up without understanding she didn't want him to? Or the two humans standing only a few feet away from her?

::I'm not against finding Ratchet,:: Skydive finally sent back. ::But you were looking for him so he could help with the girl. And everything he knows about humans, he learned from Spike, Chip, and Sparkplug. Why not just ask them what's wrong with her?::

Silverbolt looked uncertainly at the two human boys and then back at the frightened little girl that, for some unknown reason, kept coming to him for safety.

He didn't want to let her down.

Before he could make up his mind about what to do, that rumble came again, unnerving Silverbolt even more.

"Sounds like she's hungry," Spike said offhandedly.

Silverbolt and Skydive looked at each other before turning back towards the two humans. "What's hungry?" Silverbolt asked.

"It's what humans say when they start running on fumes." Bumblebee told them.

The two Aerialbots looked at each other. "Oh…" Silverbolt said slowly as he finally understood the noise the girl's body kept making, "so she's not malfunctioning then?" He asked in relief.

Spike laughed. "Malfunctioning? No. She just needs something to eat." He told them before digging around his pocket. "And as luck would have it, I think I still have a granola bar here somewhere from this morning. Aha! Found it."

He pulled a flattened bar out of his back pocket. It had a bright green wrapper and the words, "Yummi Gummi Bar; the breakfast bar for all ages!" written on the front in bright red letters.

Spike went to give the little girl the flattened granola bar, but stopped when she stiffened up and retreated behind Silverbolt again.

"Look, I'm sorry we scared you earlier," he told her still holding out the foodstuff, "but you can have this if you want."

He held out the bar, but the girl shrunk back behind Silverbolt's leg again so that her eyes, half covered by her bright yellow bangs, were the only thing showing. And then, quicker then Spike could follow, she ran out, grabbed the bar, and ran back behind Silverbolt again.

Spike blinked as she hid and tore open the wrapper. "Flighty little thing isn't she?" He said as the girl inhaled the breakfast bar.

"Yeah," Chip agreed from farther back, "and she doesn't talk much either."

"That's because she doesn't know how."

Silverbolt nearly leapt out of his armor as the familiar voice appeared behind him. Instead he spun around and came face to face with a very unhappy Ratchet.

Ratchet scowled at him.

Silverbolt smiled back at him nervously. "H-hey there Ratch'. How, um, how's it going?"

Ratchet's scowl didn't leave. "My patients keep ignoring me and running off whenever I leave the med bay. How do you _think_ I'm doing?"

Silverbolt wisely chose not to answer.

Ratchet glared at him another long moment, and then walked around him. Silverbolt just sighed in relief.

"Hey Chip, thanks for coming out on such short notice." Ratchet greeted the human.

Chip grinned. "It's no problem. So what did you need help with? Is Telatraan-1 acting up again? Decepticons try and hack the _Ark's_ core?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Ratchet said as he knelt down to speak with the boy. "Actually I wanted to ask you more for a favor then anything."

Spike and Bumblebee looked at each other in surprise. "Well this is new." Bumblebee mumbled. Spike nodded.

Chip sounded just as surprised. "A favor? For what?"

Someone carefully knocking on his leg made Silverbolt look down, the _thunk_ sound that came with it getting everyone else's attention as well. The lead Aerialbot ignored them as he found the girl staring up at him. She made a series of those hand signs and looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

Silverbolt sighed and knelt down so he didn't quite tower over her so much. "I'm sorry kid," he told her, "but I still don't know what you're saying."

Behind him, Ratchet hmphed sternly. "_That's_ what I wanted your help with. We need someone to translate what this kid's saying. We don't know her name or where she lives or who her parents are and quite frankly it's getting annoying."

Chip angled his chair so he could see the little girl better. "Oh," he said.

"But," Bumblebee spoke up uncertainly, "where'd she even come from?" He asked, looking up at Silverbolt, Skydive, and Ratchet expectantly.

"From that airport the Decepticons attacked yesterday," Skydive answered first. He jerked a thumb at Silverbolt kneeling on the floor. "Silverbolt saved her from the Deceptigoons that were taking the building apart."

"No wonder she likes you," Spike said up to Silverbolt.

The girl saw the teen standing closer then he'd been before, and shuffled deeper into Silverbolt's shadow. When Spike took another step forward, she silently reached up for Silverbolt to pick her up instead. She wasn't having any of this being picked up by strangers again nonsense.

He did so gently, however he didn't lift her up away from Spike and Chip. Instead he sat down on the floor with her in his hands. They couldn't reach her, but they could still see her clinging to his thumb.

"It's okay sweetheart," he told her gently, "they're not going to hurt you. And I wouldn't let them even if they wanted to."

The girl looked up at him with trusting eyes and nodded.

"Why's she keep doing that?" Bumblebee asked as he watched the girl from a safe distance. "Answering when she can't hear what you're saying?"

"Well if she was born deaf then she probably learned how to read lips." Chip told him as he wheeled over to where Spike was still standing with is hands in his pockets in front of Silverbolt. "Some humans have figured out how to tell what people are saying by matching the shape their mouths make with the word they're saying. She can tell what you're saying as long as she can see you speak."

"Fascinating." Skydive said in awe. "I didn't know humans could do that."

Silverbolt looked down at the little girl. "She is rather amazing," he said quietly. She must have felt him looking at her, because the girl turned to see what he wanted.

"So, erm," Silverbolt said as the girl grinned at him, "what was she saying just now?"

Chip waited until the girl could see him again before signing something at her. She seemed surprised that he knew how, but that immediately turned into suspicion.

She sharply answered him, still watching him for any hint that he was going to take her away from Silverbolt.

"She says she's still hungry." Chip told them. "Didn't you guys feed her last night?"

Ratchet sighed like he was kicking himself. "No, I forgot how often you humans need to refuel."

"No wonder her stomach's growling." Spike said. "She's probably starving by now."

Silverbolt looked over at the girl. "I guess I didn't think about it either." He admitted guiltily before mouthing at the little girl where no one else could see, "Sorry baby girl."

The girl beamed at the words. She knew he was good. This only proved it even more.

"So where do we get human food?" Skydive asked. "Is there something outside you can…scavenge for her or…?" He trailed off, running out of ideas.

The boys tried not to laugh. "No," Chip said when he thought he wasn't just going to burst out laughing at Skydive's suggestion, "there's a grocery store in town. We can get something there."

"Or," Spike interrupted, "we can just go to a restaurant. We were going to meet Dad for lunch anyway. Let's call him and see if he can get away earlier. I know a place that does breakfast all day." He told them, grinning widely at the girl as he did. "And I bet _you_," he pointed at her, "like pancakes almost as much as I do."

The girl was still watching them carefully, but she felt her stomach start talking at the word 'pancakes'. Usually she only got to eat them when she visited Stepmama Daisy and they were so good…

She nodded. _Pancakes._ She signed at the boy that could understand her.

Chip grinned. "I guess that's decided. Bumblebee, Spike, and I can take her into town for some food. Do you want us to bring her back after that or is she crashing with one of us?"

Ratchet went to answer him but a high pitched squeak cut him off. The group of bots and humans looked over to see that the little girl was clinging to Silverbolt's hand and refusing to let go.

She buried her face against his thumb and shook her head over and over.

_No, no, no!_ She signed without looking. _No leaving without you!_

"I think she means you Silverbolt," Chip said after telling the others what she was saying.

Silverbolt looked at the girl clinging to his thumb. "I hadn't figured that out yet Chip." He said somewhat sarcastically.

Chip smiled in embarrassment. "Oh, right…"

Silverbolt sighed, immediately regretting his words. "Sorry Chip," he apologized, "I guess I just don't know what to do." He admitted.

"Well," Spike said when no one else spoke up, "you _could_ just come with us. She needs to eat, you guys need to know what's up with her. Why not just ask her over bacon and eggs?"

Silverbolt looked over at Ratchet. "If Prime asks can you tell him I'm with Spike and Chip in town?" He asked hopefully. Privately he was wondering if the medic was going to let him go at all.

Ratchet vented a sharp huff. "No," he said sternly, "because I'm not letting her, or _you_," he jabbed a finger at him with a scowl, "out of my sight until we get this mess sorted out." He transformed down into his ambulance alt-mode. "Now come on, at this rate Sparkplug will get there before we even get out of here."

Spike snorted. "I don't know about that Ratch'. He's stuck arguing with Mr. Cooper about his new building. I wouldn't be surprised if he kept Dad there all day." He grumbled.

Bumblebee followed Ratchet's example. "Don't worry Spike," he said as he opened his car door for the boys to get in, "I'm sure he'll get away soon so he can meet us."

_"Us?" _Ratchet asked.

Bumblebee went still. "Well…yeah," he said slowly, "I was going to drive Spike and Chip there. Was I not invited?" He asked sounding disappointed.

"Look," Ratchet said sternly, "It'll be weird enough with two of us in town much less _three_-"

"Four." Skydive cut in.

"Four?!" Ratchet shouted.

"Oh come on Ratch', don't be so strict. Bumblebee knows how to lay low. He's done it lots of times." Spike defended his best friend.

"Yeah but-"

"It's alright Ratchet. They can come if they want to." Silverbolt said.

"I wasn't asking you!" Ratchet shot back.

Everyone fell silent and watched the ambulance carefully, fearful he might suddenly snap and decide that scavenging food from desert brush wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Finally he revved his engine angrily. "_Fine_," he snapped, "you can _come_."

"Yes!" Spike cheered.

"Humph," Ratchet grumbled, "I don't suppose there's anyone _else_ that wants to join in on this merry parade of misfits is there?"

No one else was there, so no one else answered-

::OH! I do! I do! I wanna go!::

The voice shouted through the main Autobot comm. channel, making every bot on the ship jump at once.

"Fireflight!" Ratchet shouted back at the exuberant bot. "Have you been spying on us the whole time?!"

For a minute the only thing that came over the comm. was static. And then a very hesitant voice replied, ::…maybe.::

Ratchet just revved his engine in an irritated snarl before peeling out of the _Ark_, leaving the rest to follow him if they dared.

...

They found Sparkplug waiting for them at a small mom and pop diner on the edge of town.

"Whoa," he said when he saw the montage of planes and cars pull up next to him on the street, "glad I got a table out here rather then inside."

Spike and Chip said hello to the older man as they joined him on the diner patio. It was a nice day out with a chill wind but enough sunshine to keep the cold away for now.

"So what's the occasion?" Sparkplug asked. "Not that I'm complaining or anything since that dang Cooper is still waiting for me at the office, but what're you all doing here?"

Silverbolt, Skydive, and Fireflight transformed so their alt-modes didn't hinder traffic as Ratchet quickly explained to his human friend what had happened.

"A kid?" Sparkplug asked in surprise when Ratchet was done. "What kid?"

Fireflight pointed at the little figure that had been hiding behind Silverbolt ever since they'd gotten here. "That kid." He told him cheerfully.

Sparkplug blinked at the blue eyes peeking out at him. He didn't try to convince her to come join them at the table, especially when he saw how close she stuck to the Aerialbot, but he did make sure to smile at her and pull the last chair out for her in case she wanted to come and sit with them.

"You tell her she can come and sit if she wants, or she can stay over there. Whatever makes her feel better." Sparkplug told Chip, who relayed the message.

The little girl watched Chip's fingers, and then nodded to show she had understood. She still stayed with Silverbolt though.

"Poor little girl," Sparkplug muttered as he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah," Spike agreed as the waitress came over, "she must have been traumatized by the Decepticreeps yesterday, and then she loses her parents on top of it all."

His dad nodded, but for some reason he didn't look convinced about something. Spike didn't notice because he was busy ordering the biggest plate of pancakes the diner had.

"And a side of bacon, and some eggs – scrambled – and a thing of hash browns and a two glasses of orange juice and a milk please."

The waitress grinned at him. "Is that all? Or are ya planning to feed the whole state from Mama's kitchen?"

Spike thought about it. "You're completely right. Add a side of oatmeal just in case." He grinned.

"Yeesh, what's gotten into you Spike?" Sparkplug asked once the waitress had taken the menus and the rest of their orders. "You act like I don't feed you at home."

Spike laughed. "No Dad, most of that was for her. She hasn't eaten since before the Decepticons attacked. You should have heard her stomach growling. I thought Ravage was going to spring out of nowhere."

Sparkplug sent the girl another look. The parent in him was starting to mutter suspiciously at him, but he didn't get a chance to listen to it because the waitress reappeared with a tray full of drinks.

"Alright then," she said as she carefully set the tray on a nearby table, "we got a black coffee," she set it next to Sparkplug, "a glass of OJ," she handed it to Chip, "and a pair of OJs and a milk for the boy with a third world country in his backpack."

Spike just grinned at her. "Thanks, the country of Spike appreciates your donation."

The waitress laughed as she picked up her empty tray and went back inside to see about the rest of her customers.

Sparkplug just shook his head at Spike. "My son," he muttered with a wry grin, "doesn't even realize what he's doing half the time."

"Realize what Dad?" Spike asked as he put one of the orange juices and the milk in front of the empty chair that was still pushed away from the table for the little girl.

Sparkplug watched his teenage son adjust the cups so the girl could clearly see they were for her. He shook his head again and smiled. "Never mind son. You're fine."

Spike didn't answer. He was too busy watching the girl to see if she'd come out of hiding yet.

On the other side of the railing, Silverbolt was doing the same thing as he sat on the sidewalk and ignored the pedestrians staring at him whenever they walked by.

"Don't you want to eat something sweetheart?" He asked her quietly.

The girl looked up at him, face solemn, and she shook her head quickly.

Not sure what to do now Silverbolt looked helplessly at Skydive and Fireflight.

They just shrugged.

Silverbolt sighed and wondered why he had even bothered. They knew even less then he did, and he knew nothing about human children. Less then nothing.

"Aren't you hungry?" He asked her.

The little girl's stomach answered for her.

Silverbolt frowned. Why wouldn't she eat anything?

"Honey you need to eat." He tried to tell her.

She only scooched closer to him and shook her head.

Silverbolt sighed. "I don't get it," Silverbolt finally said loud enough for the humans to hear, "why does she like me so much?"

Chip wiped his mouth free of orange pulp. "Let's ask her." He suggested before turning to the little girl and making several clean motions with his hands before pointing at Silverbolt.

The little girl watched him warily, like a bird about to fly away, but eventually she raised her hands and signed something back.

"She's says she feels safe with you." Chip deciphered the motions. "That's why she doesn't want you to leave her."

Silverbolt blinked. "Safe?" He repeated in confusion.

"Well he _is_ a safety-nut." Fireflight said as if this was a perfectly obvious thing to expect.

The rest nodded in agreement, but Silverbolt was still thinking about the girl's answer. She felt safe? With _him_? All because he'd pulled her out of a collapsing building and then flew her and a bunch of other humans straight into a crash landing and a fight with Skywarp? She had been stuck inside his chest when _he'd transformed _and then almost gotten in the way of Ratchet's invasive surgery for crying out loud! She hadn't been safe since he'd found her! So why the heck did she like him so dang much?

He felt something wrap around his ankle and he looked down again. The girl was hugging him as if she knew what he was thinking and wanted to show him exactly what she thought about him.

She might as well just grown to his height and kicked him in the stomach.

"Aw kid," he groaned, "now that's just unfair use of cuteness."

But he leaned down and picked her up to hug her anyway.

"Now listen sweetheart," he told her, making sure she was looking at him before continuing, "I know you're hungry. We _all_ know you're hungry. So why don't you go and sit down and eat something?" He suggested.

The little girl fidgeted nervously in his hand. She didn't look at him as she shook her head again, blonde hair flying around her face.

Silverbolt sighed. "Why not?" He looked down at the three humans around the square table. "Is it because of Chip and Spike and Sparkplug? Is it because you don't know them?"

She had been watching him out of the corner of her eye. She nodded after a moment of hesitation.

"Well okay then," Silverbolt said hopefully. At least now he knew what the problem was. "But you see, they've been our friends ever since I was brought online. So I know for a fact that they would never," he told her, "_ever_ hurt you for any reason."

The little girl looked carefully down at the three humans watching her silently. Chip smiled. Spike waved. And Sparkplug nodded encouragingly at her. But Silverbolt noticed she still didn't look convinced.

"But," he said, his movement getting her attention again, "if it makes you feel better, I promise that I will not leave this spot," he pointed firmly at the sidewalk he was, mostly, sitting on, "while you are at that table."

For a minute she simply stared at the ground, but a moment later she turned a questioning glance at him.

_Really?_

He didn't actually know if that's what she signed, but he felt safe with the assumption.

He nodded. "Really." He told her with a soft look. Then, remembering something he'd seen a young human do on TV (although he would never admit that to anyone, especially Fireflight. His absent minded brother didn't need the encouragement), he drew an 'x' over his spark with one digit. "Promise." He told her again.

The girl's face suddenly relaxed into a smile. It was still a bit nervous around the edges, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Silverbolt smiled back. "You ready to eat?" He asked her again.

The little girl gave a huge nod, making Silverbolt laugh as he set her down on the other side of the patio railing.

She stood there a long moment, staring at the three humans sitting at the table. They grinned and waved like they had before. Sparkplug even nudged the chair back a little more to let her know it was still for her.

She didn't move away from the fence, hands clasped behind her back as she toed the dirt crammed between the bricks of the diner patio. Slowly she looked behind her, needing to know that Silverbolt was still where he said he would be.

He was. He nodded and smiled encouragingly at her.

Slowly, the girl stepped forward and sat down in the last chair.

She sat there for a long moment in her perfect silence and suddenly whished someone with ridiculously loud bass speakers would drive by so she would have something to distract herself with.

No bass speakers appeared, although the waitress did and she had more pancakes on her tray then even the mythical third world country in Spike's backpack could possibly eat.

"Well hello there darlin'," the waitress said when she saw the little girl, "I'm guessin' you're the third world country I heard about earlier."

The girl just stared at her. Silverbolt watched, worried, as she just sat there, hardly breathing. She was starting to remind him of a mouse cornered by a house cat.

Before he could do anything, the waitress set down her tray and put the biggest stack of pancakes anyone had ever seen in front of the little girl.

"There ya go sweetie. Hope you like them."

The girl's eyes grew wide to try and take in the sight before her. As soon as the plate was down Spike and Chip couldn't see her because the stack of pancakes hid her from view. All they saw of her was a badly held fork spearing the top pancake and stealing it away.

They laughed as the waitress spread out the rest of their food and left.

"So what's her name?" Sparkplug asked as he dug into his burger. This was his lunch hour. No way he was wasting it on pancakes when there were French fries around.

"Ah dang it!" Fireflight suddenly cried, startling the humans, even the girl. He was so loud she could feel him talking.

"What?" Sparkplug asked indignantly. "What'd I say?"

"Nothing," Silverbolt mumbled, looking away, "we just…don't know her name."

Sparkplug's burger froze halfway to his mouth. He stared up at the bot. "And you just never thought to ask?" He asked, voice temperature dropping a few degrees.

"Well we couldn't at first and then her frame was creaking and it pretty much freaked out _every_body so we went looking for Ratchet-" Fireflight started rambling.

"We?" Silverbolt asked pointedly.

Fireflight ignored him. "-but it only turned out she needed fuel and now here we are and Chip's the only that understand what she's saying and all so…"

Everyone stared at Chip expectantly.

The high schooler immediately wished they had asked _before_ he'd crammed half of his omelet in his mouth. As it was he chewed fast and swallowed it down, not wanting to talk to the girl with his mouth full. It felt rude.

As soon as he had asked her though the girl went oddly still. She stared at her pancakes as syrup oozed down the side and onto her fingers, making them sticky.

She licked them instead of answering and downed half of her orange juice to wash the sticky-sweet syrup down.

They watched her, still waiting.

When she saw they weren't about to leave it alone she signed something at Chip dismissively.

He didn't look reassured by her answer. "She says she's nobody."

"But," Fireflight asked confusedly, "but she's gotta have a name." He stressed.

"What," Chip signed. It had been awhile since he'd had to use this form of sign language, so he had to think about what he was saying before he signed it. It made his speech a little slow. "Does your. Mother. Call you?" He asked, saying the words out loud so everyone else could follow the conversation.

The little girl shrunk in on herself, forgetting the pancakes she had been busily making her way through. She looked down at her lap where her hands were held so tightly together that her knuckles were turning white.

Silverbolt wanted to pick her up and hold her, let her know it was alright, but then he remembered how well _that_ had gone over earlier when Bumblebee had tried it, so he held himself back.

Without meeting their eyes, the little girl signed something to Chip.

"Nothing." Chip told them sadly. "She says her mother's dead."

A moment of silence followed the news.

"Oh…" Fireflight said for the lot of them, "but, what about her dad?"

Chip asked. The girl answered.

"He's dead too. She says she was in New Hampshire for his funeral before they were going to send her to an orphanage somewhere."

The mood sank even farther. "Oh…" Fireflight said again.

Silverbolt watched the little girl sadly. So she was alone. Maybe that was why she had become so attached to him so fast. She was just a lost, lonely little girl without her par-

He stopped when he saw the girl suddenly look away. Not because she was sad, or upset, but because her face had suddenly flushed red with anger. One that was dark and bitter and had no business on the face of someone as young as her.

Silverbolt felt his internal lie detector – the one that started going off whenever Fireflight and Slingshot told him that of course they hadn't been playing video games when he had told hem to catch up on the history data Skydive had been giving all of them to study – started to go off in the back of his processor. Something wasn't quite right here. Something was off. He had believed her when she had said her mother was dead – the look on her face had been too real to be a lie – but her reaction to the mention of her dad…it made Silverbolt think that either she was glad he was dead…

…or he wasn't really dead at all.

_"That would explain why she doesn't want us to know her name." _He thought to himself. _"She doesn't want to go back. But why?"_

The answer would have to wait. Fireflight was talking again. "Well if she doesn't have a name…" he was saying slowly as he thought, "then what do we call her?"

"She has a name Fireflight," Ratchet answered snappishly from the side of the road where he and Bumblebee were parked in their vehicular modes, "she just won't tell us what it is."

Fireflight flapped a dismissive hand at him. "Same difference. We still can't just go around calling her 'girl' the rest of her life."

"And what makes you think she's staying with us that long?" Ratchet asked. "She's got family out there somewhere. Grandparents, aunts, uncles. Really old cousins."

"They were flying her to an orphanage Ratch'." Bumblebee reminded him in a small voice.

Ratchet hmphed, not buying it. "In another city? My guess is they were sending her there so her relatives could come and get her. No, someone out there is looking for this little girl and we've got to find out who they are and where they are." The ambulance insisted.

"Well we still can't keep calling her girl all the time," Fireflight mumbled sulkily as he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the humans to finish eating.

"She can stay with us while you find them." Sparkplug offered as he worked his way through his French fries. "We've got some room."

"And with Carly's help I'm sure we can look after her." Spike added happily.

The ambulance relaxed on it's axels slightly. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping you would say that." Ratchet told them. "So do you want to just take her back to your house after this or-"

"No!"

The conversation ground to a halt as everyone looked up at Silverbolt.

He could feel Ratchet's stare even though he was still an ambulance and didn't technically have eyes. "No?" He asked. "What d'ya mean no?"

Silverbolt steeled himself. He was only half aware of what he was about to ask for. "I mean I can look after her." He clarified nervously.

Sparkplug watched him. "Are you sure about that Silverbolt? I mean, not that I doubt you or anything, but kids, 'specially ones as young as her, well they can be a real handful. It's not an easy job looking after one."

Silverbolt looked down at the little girl happily ignoring the adults talking around her as she stuffed a forkful of scrambled eggs in her mouth. She danced in her seat and hummed out of tune as she ate them.

"I know." Silverbolt looked back at Sparkplug. "And I'm not saying I can do it without anyone's help," he quickly amended, "but…" he looked at the little girl again just in time to see her meet his gaze and smile at him, showing little white teeth, "but I want to."

"And," he quickly added, "it might be what's best for her too and all since she's got that weird attachment to me and she doesn't like letting me get out of her sight and, well…"

He stopped talking. He figured that might be in his best interest right now anyway.

From his seat facing the jet, Sparkplug watched Silverbolt with a steady eye. He sized him up, weighed his words, and then looked over at Ratchet. He knew the ambulance was doing the same thing.

Sparkplug shrugged, showing he didn't see a problem with the idea. Obviously Silverbolt was somewhat sweet on the child. _"And who wouldn't be?"_ The oldest human there thought. _"She's got to be the sweetest kid I've met in ages."_

Next to him, Sparkplug heard Ratchet sigh in resignation.

Taking this as the other bot's signal for 'okay _fine_ if you insist on this madness then do it already', Sparkplug clasped his hands together and leaned his arms on the table, mindful of the plates and his half empty cup of coffee.

"Alright look," he said firmly, looking up at Silverbolt, "there's lots you need to know if you honestly want to watch her and all, but I've got to get back to Mr. Cooper or the man'll just follow me home and never let me sleep again," he grimaced at the very thought before getting back to the point at hand. "So we'll have to go over some things later. But the main things you need to know about human children is that they need to eat three times a day, sometimes more," he ticked off a calloused finger, "they need to sleep at night no matter what they try and tell you," he ticked off another, "and when you say you're going to do something, you gotta do it. No matter what."

Silverbolt nodded. "Alright."

"As for the rest," Sparkplug sighed and leaned back in his chair before drinking some more coffee, "maybe I can get up to the _Ark_ this evening or something. I'll have to see if I can get things ironed out with Mr. Cooper this afternoon or not." He grimaced as he took anther sip.

"Mr. Cooper still being a pain in the exhaust Dad?" Spike asked innocently enough.

Sparkplug downed the last of his coffee and nodded. "Yep. Man's worse then Megatron I swear."

"But the pay's good yeah?" Spike asked.

Sparkplug shrugged one shoulder. "Well yeah, but between you and me I'd rather be working on-"

Sparkplug suddenly stopped talking. He looked over at his son as something finally occurred to him.

"Oh I get it," the older man said suddenly, "I'm paying aren't I?"

Chip and Silverbolt gave him nervous smiles as Ratchet chuckled quietly to himself. Spike just smiled at his dad.

"Yep!"

The older man sighed, but got out his wallet anyway as he signaled the waitress.

"You gotta admit Sparkplug," Ratchet said, "you walked right into that one."

Sparkplug didn't sound nearly as amused as his friend. "Yeah, yeah," he said before adding for Silverbolt, "Another thing about kids is that they eat you out of house and home before you can bat an eye. _Especially _teenagers."

Silverbolt didn't answer as the waitress came up to the table and asked what she could do. Sparkplug gave her a weary look. "Check please."

The waitress just nodded and said, "Sure thing," before disappearing back into the diner.

On the other side of the railing surrounding the patio, Silverbolt was still thinking about what had just happened. Had he really just said all that…?

"Sooo…" Fireflight said slowly, breaking into Silverbolt's thought process. There was a hopeful note in his voice that made Silverbolt want to crawl back into bed. If his processor hadn't been so tangled up in questions about the little girl smiling up at him as if he was her best friend in the whole wide world, he probably could have guessed Fireflight's question. But as it was he was completely surprised.

"We're keeping her," Fireflight grinned, "right?"

* * *

Oh Fireflight...how I love you. :) And I'd be lying if I didn't say Ratchet wasn't a big ball of sarcastic fun to write. ;3 I hoped you enjoyed it and that it didn't drag since it was so long...thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3: Skyangel

:D Yay! Nother chapter up and ready! I especially like this one for...well everything! I'm telling you guys I think this might be my favorite one to write so far. Hopefully you'll like it! Hope you guys had a good Halloween and please leave me some reviews if ya don't mind. ;)

Oh Fireflight...I think I'm falling more and more in love with you the more I write you. Do you suppose the animator that created him knew what kind of trouble he'd cause when Flight first came out of his pen? I'm tellin' ya, string of broken hearts in the wake of his rocket-powered boots...

Thank you to Birgitte LP, Trapazoidal, and Topkicker26. Seriously, I _love _you guys! I'm so thrilled that you love Skyangel and the insanity she has caused the Aerialbots to spiral into. :)

...

Skyangel

Chapter Three: Skyangel

"Oh come on Silverbolt, _pleeeeaseeee?"_

Silverbolt tried to ignore the pleading bot flying next to him, but it was getting more and more difficult as they neared the_ Ark_. Mainly because he'd been pleading the whole way home.

"She's not a pet Fireflight." Silverbolt tried again, voice strained even across the comm. channel.

"I know," the other mech insisted, "but she's so cute! And we don't know where she belongs. Or anything about her really. Only that she was at the airport after Thanksgiving so she could have been going anywhere in the country. Or even the whole world!"

"I highly doubt that Fireflight. Thanksgiving's only a holiday in America." Silverbolt tried not to sound too tired, but Fireflight just didn't know when to _stop_.

"I've already thought up some great names for her too! And I'll feed her and play with her and make sure she has a place to sleep. And that Slingshot doesn't accidentally step on her of course-"

"She's not a pet Fireflight!" Silverbolt tried again.

"Pleeeeeaaaseee!" Fireflight begged instead, transforming in mid-air and using the rockets in his boots to stay in the air. He clasped his hands in front of him and stared at Silverbolt with large optics that the humans would have compared to some famous baby deer Silverbolt couldn't remember the name to right now. "She needs us!" He pleaded.

Silverbolt abruptly felt his will start to crumble.

Fireflight must have sensed it, even though alt-modes were notoriously lacking in facial expressions, because he made his eyes grow even wider and sucked in a deep breath.

"Puh-_leeeeeeeaaassssseeee!"_

Silverbolt slowed his speed automatically, instinctively trying to get away from that high pitched sound coming from the other Aerialbot's mouth.

::Would you make him mute it already?!:: Ratchet's voice suddenly came through the comm., distance making his gruff voice sound tiny. ::We can hear him whining all the way down here!::

Silverbolt glanced down, and then immediately regretted the action. Far down below him and the other two Aerialbots the road wound, ribbon-like, through the desert. He was just low enough that he had made out the bright white and yellow forms of Ratchet and Bumblebee driving far below them.

In the back of his processor Silverbolt was glad that the still nameless little girl had finally let Bumblebee and Spike cajole her into riding with them instead of flying back to the _Ark_ with Silverbolt. The last thing he needed was to be worrying about a fragile human passenger as his engines started to stall.

For the umpteenth time that trip, Fireflight's voice broke through Silverbolt's concentration as he tried not to faceplant into the ground _way_ below them.

"Oh please! Oh pleaseohpleaseohpleaseoh_please!"_ Fireflight pleaded as he flew backwards in front of Silverbolt.

If he hadn't felt so sick all of a sudden Silverbolt would have felt impressed.

"Fireflight," he hissed through a strained vocorder, "_not now!_"

Fireflight stopped moving backwards through the air and Silverbolt almost ran into him. For a minute Fireflight looked stricken, like a puppy that had just lost his ball because someone had kicked it over the fence.

And then the expression disappeared almost instantly to be replaced by a lopsided grin.

Silverbolt preferred the kicked puppy look.

"Oh I get it," Fireflight said with a cackle, "you looked down didn't you Bolt?"

If he'd been human Silverbolt would have broken out in a cold sweat. "Shut up." He grumbled, stubbornly making his engines continue running.

With a stubbornness that could match most younglings, Fireflight continued his pleading. "Oh come on Bolt. She already likes you and all that. We could be good uncles!" He grinned like a loon and threw out his arms for emphasis.

Silverbolt tried to glare at him, but it didn't work since he didn't have a face at the moment. "Ratchet already said she could stay with us for the time being. What more do you want?"

"I want to keep her!" Fireflight insisted. "I want her to stay with us forever! You heard Ratchet earlier, it's not like she has anyone else to go back to anyway. It could be that no one even knows she's missing."

"He has a point there." Skydive put in.

Silverbolt tried to glare at him too, but it still didn't work. "You are not helping." He shot at the black jet flanking him before returning to Fireflight. "And I don't know about you, but what I heard Ratchet say was that she was on her way to see somebody. Grandparents, Godparents, _someone_ out there is looking for her Fireflight. And we can't just leave them hanging in the dark."

"But she _needs_ us-" Fireflight started to say again.

Silverbolt cut him off before he could drive the nail into his coffin. If he heard those words again he'd never want to let the little human go. "Someone out there _misses_ her Fireflight!" He said firmly, raising his voice to be heard over his younger brother. "She belongs with them, not us."

Fireflight hovered in place, face falling. "Fine," he mumbled sulkily, "keep thinking like that. But she likes us, and I like her. And I don't want her to leave."

Silverbolt sighed in exasperation. "You don't even _know _her 'Flight."

Fireflight scowled at him. "I do to! She likes to be warm when she sleeps and she gives lots of hugs and red is her favorite color. And she can eat more pancakes then anybody else I know!" He exclaimed stubbornly, as if these were facts that most people should live by.

"Fireflight," Silverbolt said with forced patience, "we're robots. No one else you know even _eats_, much less can eat more pancakes then her-"

"She was lost and scared and she chose _us_ to look after her!" Fireflight insisted loudly. "And that means something! Even if you don't want it to." He threw the last sentence at Silverbolt like it was a rock at his windshield.

Silverbolt's engines slowed slightly in surprise. It wasn't like Fireflight to say things like that.

_"He must really be attached to her already." _Silverbolt thought guiltily. _"And here I thought he just wanted to play house for a few days."_

The Concorde felt even worse when Fireflight quickly transformed again and blasted off, leaving his last words hanging in the air between them as the pop of the sound barrier broke in his wake and echoed around the other Aerialbots several moments after he had left.

"What was that all about?" Silverbolt asked Skydive as the _Ark_ appeared down below them.

Silverbolt could hear the shrug implied in the calm historian's voice. "He cares about the little creature." He said as if this should be obvious. "And I can see why. She's an easy human to care about."

Silverbolt silently agreed. A tremor went through his spark whenever he remembered that little splotch of red he'd seen at the airport and knew it had been her. She could have been hurt a hundred times over, and he wouldn't have even known her name. Not that there was much of a difference _now_…

The Concorde shook itself, trying to shake away the snap of fear that shot through him at the thought. She was safe now. They were all safe.

He told himself that as he began making his final approach, letting desert and mountains rise up to fill his vision as he angled his nose straight for the half buried Cybertronian ship. He was only about a half mile out before the open door of the Aerialbots' hanger bay appeared in the side of the _Ark_.

Silverbolt triggered his transformation process as the ground sped up faster to meet him. He swooshed through the hanger door with only his wings still extended as the rest of him folded and flattened into a different frame. A moment later he hit the ground with a room shaking thud, bipedal frame fully formed.

He stood up and got out of the way so Skydive could have a clear place to land. As the black jet swooped into the hanger and twisted himself around to land on his feet on the floor, Silverbolt looked around for Fireflight, but he was already gone.

Silverbolt sighed. "I'm going to go find Fireflight," he told Skydive as he slouched out the door.

"Ten creds says I know where you can find him." Skydive called after him as he picked up the history book he'd left in the hanger and turned towards his quarters.

Silverbolt sighed in agreement and made his way down to the main entrance of the _Ark_. Bumblebee and Spike were still there, but no Fireflight or the little girl.

"Everyone sorta disappeared when we got here," Spike told him, "Ratchet and Chip are working on a program over with Telatraan-1. Something about a teaching program for sign language or something like that." Spike told him.

"Looked like they'd be busy with that for a while." Bumblebee added. "But Fireflight and the little girl went that way if that's who you were looking for."

Silverbolt thanked them and followed the way the smaller bot was pointing.

...

He heard them before he saw them.

"How about…" Fireflight's thoughtful words came from somewhere up ahead, "Skydancer?"

The girl blew a small raspberry, showing just what she thought about that.

"Hm…" Fireflight hummed in thought, "well how about Moonshine?"

Silverbolt stepped through the door just in time to see the girl laugh at the jet lying on the floor in front of her, kicking his heels absentmindedly in the air behind him.

"That's a kind of human alcohol Fireflight." Silverbolt told him from the door.

Fireflight looked up, surprised by Silverbolt's abrupt appearance. "Really?" He asked before he remembered he was still mad at the other Aerialbot. "I mean, really. Well that's nice." He told him icily. Well, as icily as a bot like Fireflight could sound anyway.

He pointedly looked down at the little girl, ignoring Silverbolt. "How about Sunracer?" He asked her.

The little girl screwed up her face in thought, and then waggled her hand back and forth in an, "Eh," gesture.

"Alright we'll think about that one some more." Fireflight said.

Silverbolt blinked at the odd pair. "So…what are you guys doing in here?" He asked.

Fireflight slid him a look as if he was deciding if he wanted to answer him or not. But before he could, the girl finally noticed who was standing in the doorway. Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights and she giggled as she scrambled to her feet and ran across the room to Silverbolt.

He knelt down automatically as she came racing up to him. She stopped far enough away that she didn't have to look straight above her to see his face and signed something up at him.

Silverbolt wondered if he could still go pry Chip away from whatever teaching program he was helping Ratchet with.

"She says we're trying to find a new name for her." Fireflight told him condescendingly.

Given that the other mech was already mad at him, Silverbolt didn't ask how Fireflight could be so sure.

"Oh," he said instead as he looked back down at the little girl, "but why?"

Fireflight huffed as if it was obvious. "Because that's what you _do_ when you find something and it comes home with you. You give it a name so everyone knows it's yours. And yes," he shot before Silverbolt could argue back, "I _know_ she's not a pet. Pets don't choose their own names." He muttered.

Silverbolt sighed, but was too tired to get back into _that_ argument. "She already has a perfectly good name Fireflight." He said instead.

"Much good it does us when she won't tell us what it is." Fireflight grumbled.

Silverbolt still had his reservations about that, but given Fireflight's mood, he didn't think he should bring that up here either.

"Well," he said instead, "have you two thought up anything good?"

The girl gave an exaggerated sigh and shook her head. Then she grabbed Silverbolt's hand (as much as she could since it was bigger then she was tall) and pulled him forward.

Silverbolt followed her and sat down between her and Fireflight on the floor. Fireflight wouldn't look at him. Clearly he wasn't done sulking yet.

"So what have you guys come up with so far?" Silverbolt asked.

The little girl started to list something out, in different signs then before, little fingers switching deftly between motions. Silverbolt noticed that some of the same signals kept popping up and he realized that instead of using the word-signs he had seen her use earlier, she was trying to spell the names out.

As soon as he figured that out, he wasn't surprised a few minutes later when the little girl made a frustrated sound, flung her hands in the air, and stomped her foot against the floor. Then she stomped across the floor and smartly kicked Fireflight's elbow.

Fireflight started from surprise more then pain. "What?" He demanded in annoyance.

The little girl stuck a fist on her hip and sternly pointed up at Silverbolt.

Fireflight slid a look at Silverbolt. "Fine," he snapped grumpily, "so far we've got Sunracer and Butterfly, Sunshine and Skydancer and all sorts of names like that but she hasn't liked any of them so far." He told him in a frustrated voice. "My favorite so far's been Laughlight, but she thought it sounded funny-"

"Wait a minute," Silverbolt interrupted not wanting to get mired in a laundry list of bad names, "Fireflight, those are all Transformer-like names."

The other bot blinked at him. "Yeah, so?"

"So," Silverbolt said slowly, wondering why he had to say this at all, "she's a human."

Fireflight looked like he was wondering what that had to do with anything.

"So she needs a human name." Silverbolt told him.

The look on Fireflight's face said that was up for debate. "No she doesn't, and there aren't any good human names out there anyway."

"There are too." Silverbolt argued back, unable to help himself.

"Oh yeah?" Fireflight challenged, "Name one."

"Well," Silverbolt said as he quickly thought, pulling up names he had heard in books or people use I town, "Bethany's a pretty name. Or Aria. Or maybe Rachel." He suggested.

They both looked at the little girl to see what she thought.

She looked uncertainly between the two of them, as if she didn't like being caught in the middle. She fidgeted with the hem of her dress nervously before pointing a little at Fireflight.

"Yes!" The victorious bot cried, sitting up so he could punch the air. "I win! I knew she liked my names better then yours." He crowed.

Silverbolt rolled his eyes. "At least he isn't sulking anymore," he told the girl quietly where Fireflight couldn't hear.

She nodded with a relieved grin, glad he wasn't mad at her for choosing Fireflight over him.

Fireflight settled himself back on the floor, stretching out on his stomach so he could see the girl better. Silverbolt resisted the urge to laugh when she copied him, lying front down on the floor, chin propped up on her hand, feet lazily kicking the air behind her.

The other mech didn't seem to notice her though. He was too busy thinking.

"Hmm…" he hummed, thinking hard, "what about…Rainbowchaser?" He asked.

The girl giggled at the name and shook her head.

Fireflight's face fell, but then quickly brightened up as he thought of, "Rainflyer?"

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Oh," Fireflight said dejectedly. "What about Whirlwind? Rainfall? Sunfall?"

"Clouddancer?" Silverbolt put in, moving so she could see his face and make out his words.

"Featherflight!"

"Silentwind?"

"Skywarpstomper!" Fireflight cried.

The little girl just laughed at them now.

Silverbolt felt his shoulders slump slightly. He hadn't realized how much he wanted to find out what name she liked.

Next to him Fireflight sighed. "Dang. I liked that last one." He muttered.

They sat there in silence for a little while, each left with their own thoughts.

After a few minutes, Fireflight groaned. "Man…" he mumbled, "this is going to be harder then I thought, isn't it?"

Both Silverbolt and the girl nodded, matching looks of disappointment on their faces as well.

Fireflight just sighed again, giving up for the time being as he looked down at the little girl aimlessly. "She needs the perfect name…" he mumbled, mind starting to wander.

The little girl looked up at him, feeling him watching her. Her wavy golden hair was starting to frizz from all that shaking. It floated away from her head like rays of sunshine, surrounding her sweet face like a golden halo.

Fireflight suddenly sat up again. "Hey," he said thoughtfully as he watched her, "hey now _there's_ an idea!"

The girl and Silverbolt looked over at him. "What?" Silverbolt asked. "What do you have now?"

Fireflight didn't answer him. Instead he reached out and pointed a digit at the girl, grinning triumphantly as he startled her some.

"Skyangel." He said simply.

The pair watched him another moment to see if there was anything else after that, but nothing.

"What?" Silverbolt asked as the girl cocked her head in confusion.

Their reactions didn't sink Fireflight's spirits any. "Her name," he said quickly, "It could be Skyangel."

The little girl seemed to think about this, fingers twitching in front of her as she tested the word in the air.

Fireflight watched her, and then looked over expectantly at Silverbolt.

"Well?" He asked giddily. "What do you think?"

Silverbolt thought about it. "Skyangel," he murmured the name thoughtfully, "I think I like it."

Fireflight grinned wider then before as he looked back at the girl. She was grinning too.

She gave a decisive nod, face practically glowing now.

"Well aright then," Silverbolt said with a smile of his own, "looks like Skyangel it is."

"Woohoo!" Fireflight cheered, leaping up from the floor with the force of his excitement. Silverbolt grabbed Skyangel off the floor instinctively so Fireflight didn't accidentally step on her.

Despite the wildly leaping jet jumping around the room, she didn't seem that frightened when she looked up at Silverbolt. Instead she beamed up at him in a mix of joy and pride.

Silverbolt felt himself smile back down at her. "I'm glad you like it baby girl." He told her.

Skyangel smiled even more at him. She had never been so happy before! She thought for sure she would burst with it, like a birthday balloon.

"Now," Silverbolt said, getting her attention, "let's go introduce you to the others."

Skyangel nodded happily as he stood up with her held securely in his hand.

...

"So what's the point of this program again?" Air Raid asked as Ratchet and Chip typed commands into Teletraan-1 a few feet away from him.

Ratchet grunted in general ornery-ness. "It's a language program, I told you that. Now stop fidgeting and hold still." He snapped at the Aerialbot in his usual sharp way.

Air Raid sighed and but didn't stop his nervous twitching quiet yet. "Care to decipher the ol' Docbot Wheeljack? I thought you were fluent in Ratchet-ese." He asked the bot busy hovering around the machines Air Raid was currently standing in the middle of.

Wheeljack snorted as he fussed with a group of cables sprouting out of a boxy machine like limp noodle legs. "Don't look at me. Right now I'm as much in the dark as you are. An hour ago I didn't even know a human had spent the night onboard the _Ark_."

Air Raid stifled a sigh and left the engineer to mutter his, "Nobody tells me anything around here," in peace as he turned to Chip instead.

"You know what's going on kid?"

Chip finished typing in a string of computer code before backing up from the console and turning ninety degrees to face Air Raid.

"It's a language program like Ratchet said, but it's for the different sign languages that are used in the states."

"Different languages?" Air Raid interrupted. "There's more then one?"

Chip nodded. "There's several actually. American Sign Language is probably one of the most well known of, although I don't know if it's the one most people use. But other then that there's oralism, cued speech, simultaneous communication and others that I'm not familiar with. But I did notice that the little girl is mainly using a form of Pidgin Sign."

Air Raid frowned. "Aren't pigeons those birds that poop on everything in parks?" He asked.

Chip laughed. "Not those kinds of pigeons Air Raid. This is spelled different."

"But what's so different about it?" Slingshot asked off to the side. He was standing around, waiting for Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Chip to be done with Air Raid, and looking incredibly bored.

"Pidgin Sign," Chip explained, "is a blend between ASL and English, like what they teach us in school. It uses a lot of the same signs used in American Sign Language, but it mostly follows English grammar rules, although not all the time."

"Okay," Air Raid said with a thoughtful nod, "that makes sense. But," he pointed up at the monitors and electrodes hooked up to his head that were currently restricting his movements and keeping him from running out the door, "why am _I _here?"

Without looking up from Teletraan-1, Ratchet reached over and smacked the Aerialbot's hand. "Quit moving." He told him again. "You're messing up my readings."

Air Raid rolled his optics and sighed, but stopped moving anyway.

"You're here," Chip said as he turned back to Teletraan-1, "because we need your help in figuring out how to write up a program that won't just teach you what the hand signs mean, but how to form them."

"Why don't you just teach us?" Air Raid asked. He leaned against the side of the monitor next to him, but a glare from Ratchet quickly had him standing straight again.

"Because there's too much to teach," Chip told him, "by the time you all figured everything out, you probably won't need it anymore."

"Meaning that we need to find a way to learn this stuff fast enough so that we can help the girl and get her home." Ratchet put in crabbily.

"Okay fine," Air Raid said, getting frustrated himself, "but why am _I_," he pointed at himself emphatically before turning his index fingers towards the floor, "_here?"_

Ratchet finally stood up from whatever he'd been studying and looked at the entangled jet.

"Isn't it obvious?" He asked. "We needed a test subject."

Off to the side, Slingshot started to snicker.

Air Raid shot him a sharp look before looking back at Ratchet. "And _I'm _your first choice? Why not Silverbolt? He's the one that volunteered to baby-sit her in the first place!" He pointed out.

From where he was busy hooking machines together, Wheeljack straightened up. "He did?" He asked in stunned surprise.

"Yes," Ratchet agreed with Air Raid mockingly, ignoring his best friend for the moment "and in case you didn't notice he's off doing his job right now. And _you_ just happen to be the closest one to his physical specs."

Air Raid frowned at him. "So I'm not just a test dummy, I'm the _replacement _test dummy?!"

Ratchet grinned at him. "You got it dummy. Now be quiet and sit still while we test this next line of code. You ready over there Wheeljack?"

Wheeljack plugged wires into a few different machines and then flashed Ratchet a thumbs up. "Ready." He called back, although Air Raid also noticed he put a safe amount of distance between him and the new machines.

Air Raid sighed dramatically and leaned against the back of the wire net he was trapped in. There were so many cables and conduits behind him that their web managed to actually support his weight.

Ratchet and Chip worked in silence for a few minutes, occasionally pointing something out for the other to look at or correct.

Eventually the productive silence was broken by someone clearing their throat very loudly.

"Fireflight," Ratchet said with a thoughtful frown when he caught sight of the mech rocking back and forth on his heels in the doorway, "what are you doing?"

Fireflight tried to bite back a mischievous grin, but they all saw it anyway. "I wanted you guys to meet a friend of mine." He told them.

The thoughtfulness abruptly vacated Ratchet's stare, turning it into just another one of his frowns. "We don't have time for your games right now Fireflight. Now just tell me what the heck you're doing here so you can leave."

Air Raid leaned an elbow on one of the shorter monitors as he watched the drama unfold. It wasn't like there was anything better to do right now.

He was a little surprised when Fireflight didn't wilt around the edges at Ratchet's sharp tone, but then Fireflight had always bounced back pretty quickly whether he was on the battlefield fighting Decepticons or at home poking Ratchet with an invisible stick.

Fireflight's grin grew at the corner of his mouth, making it slide up one side of his face.

"You look like a lopsided ninja turtle." Slingshot told him, sounding just as bored as before when Chip had been explaining why Air Raid looked like a science experiment.

As usual Fireflight ignored him and jumped right into the fun. "Chip, gentlebots," he paused with a scowl at the bot on the other side of the room, "Slingshot. I am pleased to introduce you to – my good friend and _not_ pet-"

"Fireflight!" Ratchet hollered impatiently.

"MydearfriendSkyangel!" The jet spat out the sentence so fast it came out as one big word.

That got more then a few head tilts as his audience tried to decipher what he'd just said.

"Your deer fry ended a skangle?" Wheeljack asked in total confusion. "And I thought _my_ processor was fried…" he mumbled before turning back to one of the monitors.

"What's a sky angel?" Ratchet asked.

"Oh for Primus' sake," someone behind Fireflight muttered, "just give it up 'Flight. I told you this wasn't a good idea."

Fireflight quickly shushed the unseen Silverbolt.

Usually Air Raid would have had enough of this nonsense by now, but since he couldn't exactly go anywhere (not without suffering Ratchet's wrath at any rate) he just stood there and watched with a slight smile on his face.

"Ten creds Ratchet throws him outta here on his aft." He said to whoever would take the bet.

"Not if I beat him to it," Silverbolt muttered behind the posing Fireflight. "And watch your language around Skyangel Air Raid or I'll throw you out a window."

Air Raid blinked. It wasn't often he heard Silverbolt make such outright threats like that. It was more then a little refreshing.

"Oh relax 'Bolt, she's not even here," Air Raid told him, automatically assuming he had meant that strange little girl that was going to be following them around for awhile "and it's not like she could hear me swearing even if she was." He pointed out.

"Will someone tell me what the heck a sky angel is before I decide to use you all for Dinobot practice dummies?" Ratchet demanded loudly.

Fireflight laughed. "Chill out Ratch'," he told him, obviously not realizing what kind of danger he was in already, "_that's_ our little Skyangel."

He finally moved out of the door, letting the others see that a rather impatient Silverbolt had been standing behind him the whole time, child in hand. Silverbolt rolled his optics at the theatrics.

"It's her new name," he told them bluntly, tired of Fireflight's games, "she picked it out herself."

Fireflight stared at him. "Like Hel-"

Silverbolt elbowed him in the stomach before the offending word could leave his mouth. In his hands, the little girl just covered her mouth to try not to laugh so hard at the stunned look on Fireflight's face.

Wheeljack's optics lit up when he saw the thin creature standing in Silverbolt's careful hands. "Skyangel huh?" He muttered to himself as he came over and inspected the little girl. "That's a pretty name. It matches a lil' cutie like you." He told her, voice filled with the grin none of them could see.

Skyangel shrunk away from the new bot coming towards her. She didn't like him. She couldn't see his face. How could she tell if he was nice or not if she couldn't see his face?

She inched closer against Silverbolt's side, instantly making all eyes fasten on her small form.

Silverbolt looked down at her, instinctively holding her closer. "What's the matter Skyangel?" He asked, but with her eyes still fastened nervously on Wheeljack's looming head, she didn't see the question.

"Here let me help," Chip offered as he quickly finished another line of code before rolling back from Telatraan-1 and over to where the small group was standing. After some hesitation about how to go about this, Silverbolt knelt down, mindful of the small girl clinging to him, so that Chip could see her.

The human boy signed a question at her with sharp, practiced movements.

They watched as Skyangel sent another anxious look up at Wheeljack, who was still standing next to them, before signing something back.

"She says she can't tell if you're a good robot or a bad robot because she can't see your face." Chip translated. "It's scaring her."

Slingshot snorted. "Freaking her out more like." He muttered.

From where he was still hooked into the cable-wire web, Air Raid chuckled. "It probably looked like you were just staring at her 'Jack." He said.

"No wonder you creep her out." Slingshot added with an all out laugh.

The engineer shot the other Aerialbot an annoyed look before throwing whatever tool was in his hand half-heartedly at him. "Ah, shaddup." He grumbled.

Skyangel flinched closer to Silverbolt as the scary, light-up robot threw something at the irritable bot that had helped save her before.

Silverbolt felt the child flinch against his palm. "You're not helping anything right now Wheeljack." He muttered at the other bot.

"But I'm not anything to be afraid of!" Wheeljack insisted, looking stricken. "I'm a good guy! I build cool stuff! Kids love me!"

Skyangel felt the vibrations of the scary robot shouting something and started to shiver. He couldn't hurt her, right? Silverbolt would protect her like he had from the other scary robot, wouldn't he?

"Right," Air Raid said coolly above her head, "because kids love it when you make them cry."

Both Wheeljack and Silverbolt jumped slightly before peering down at little Skyangel. She was still shivering under the safety Silverbolt's hands offered, but despite her being so small, they could still make out the string of tears that ran down the side of her face.

"Oh geez," Wheeljack groaned, looking ashamed of himself, "now, come on kid, don't cry. I'm not gonna hurt ya. Honest!" He tried, but Skyangel just buried herself against her protector's side.

Silverbolt felt his insides lurch uncomfortably as the little girl clung to him, although he couldn't tell if it was because of his general lack of knowledge about what he should do or if it was just because he couldn't stand that small, scared look on her face.

He adjusted his grip on her, holding her close to let her know she was safe. "You're alright baby girl." He told her, hoping that this close to him she could feel him talking. "You're alright. I've got you."

He looked down to see she was still holding tight to him, but most of her tears were gone, even if her eyes were wet.

"Oh!" Ratchet suddenly huffed, stepping closer to his friend the engineer and whacking him upside the head. "_Now_ look what you've done! You've gone and scared her half to death."

Wheeljack rubbed at the back of his head and leaned away from Ratchet. "It's not like I meant to do it!" He defended himself only to get cut off by Ratchet.

"Well ya did." He shot back as he shook one of his infamous wrenches at the engineer. "So how bout if ya wanna talk to Skyangel, you get rid of that stupid mask. It's not like you even _need_ it half the time anyway." He grumbled.

Wheeljack looked away in embarrassment. "…I can't." He finally mumbled. "It's still glued on tight."

Ratchet's optics nearly bugged out of his head. "From that time back on _Cybertron?!"_ He shouted, making Skyangel jump as she watched safely from in between Silverbolt's fingers.

"No!" Wheeljack shouted back defensively before looking away again. "…yes." He said instead.

Ratchet grumbled something not repeatable around small human children or impressionable bots like Fireflight. But it actually made Air Raid grin and Slingshot laugh under his breath.

"Just-" the medic said in tired frustration as he shoved Wheeljack towards where Air Raid was still hooked up to the ship, "get back to work."

Wheeljack shot Ratchet a scowl over his shoulder, but did as he said anyway, grumbling all the while.

Skyangel watched the whole argument with great interest. So maybe the robot with the light-up head was still scary, but he was scared of Ratchet! And Ratchet liked her because she was a good girl.

With that kind of young girl logic firmly in place, Skyangel leaned over Silverbolt's grip and stuck her tongue out at the engineer's back. That'll teach him to go around scaring little kids like her!

A deep sound vibrated under her feet, making her feet buzz. She looked up to see her guardian was laughing at her, but in a good way. The kind of way where he was smiling at her because he thought she was funny, rather then the mean kind of laughter she was used to.

She grinned up at him, happy she had made him laugh, and glad he wasn't going to punish her for what she'd done. That's what Stepmama would have done, she thought bitterly.

"But Wheeljack's not such a bad guy," Chip said down on the floor as the little girl retreated into herself, although no one noticed, "she just can't understand his intentions and that scares her a little bit."

Wheeljack looked down at Chip stiffly. "Thank you Chip." He said before looking over at the medic next to Teletraan-1. "See Ratch'? Not _all_ humans think I'm scary."

"Just the little ones." Air Raid put in, then gave a strangled squawk as Wheeljack jammed one of the electrodes onto his arm harder then strictly necessary.

Silverbolt looked down at Skyangel and then back at Wheeljack. "Chip's right." He said somewhat unexpectedly. "Wheeljack's not scary Skyangel, he's just a little odd."

Wheeljack looked over at the other mech, and silently tried to decide if 'odd' was better or worse then 'scary'.

Skyangel looked up at her adopted mech, uncertainty clear on her face. What was he talking about?

Silverbolt slowly walked over towards the engineer. "See?" He started to say to the little girl in his hands. "He's a good guy, like me."

Skyangel backed away and hid behind his thumb when she saw who Silverbolt was walking towards. Obviously she disagreed.

Silverbolt stopped walking when he saw he was only frightening her. He looked down at Chip uncertainly as the boy rolled over to be closer incase they needed his help again.

"Hey 'Jack, pick me up," Chip said from the floor, interrupting the engineer's thought process.

"Uh," Wheeljack said uncertainly, "okay I guess," he mumbled as he carefully lifted Chip up, wheelchair and all.

The boy smiled gently over at the little girl. "See Skyangel?" He signed when he saw he had her attention. "He's our friend. He won't hurt you."

Looking unconvinced, Skyangel looked up at Silverbolt, eyes silently asking him if this was true.

Silverbolt nodded. "He's alright baby girl," he told her, "promise. See?" He said before putting a hand on Wheeljack's shoulder. "He's a good guy."

Chip put his words into signs and all three waited to see if she would believe them or not.

Skyangel watched the engineer suspiciously, leaning away from him like a baby bird away from a perceived threat. Then, cautiously, she inched closer, reached out a hand, and quickly patted Wheeljack twice before scurrying back to the safety of Silverbolt's palm.

Chip laughed. "I think that means she's at least going to give you a chance."

Wheeljack was probably grinning behind his face mask. "Told ya she'd come around Ratchet!" He shot back over at his friend.

Ratchet just snorted and rolled his optics, but resisted the urge to shout something back.

Wheeljack didn't notice as he looked back down at Chip and Skyangel. "Hey," he nudged the teen carefully with a finger, "can you tell her that I'm sorry I scared her earlier. I was just trying to say hello and all." He explained, more subdued then before.

Chip grinned. "Ya want to tell her yourself?" He asked.

Wheeljack's optics brightened over his face mask. "Yeah alright." He answered.

It took some time, and with Chip giving him the signs right there, Skyangel already knew what the mech was trying to say, but she sat and waited patiently anyway. Or at least as patiently a child her age could at any rate.

"Sorry, I," Wheeljack stumbled through the apology with clumsy movements, "scared you." He pointed at her.

Skyangel ducked her head shyly and swayed back and forth for a moment before signing something back.

"She says it's alright." Chip told Wheeljack as Silverbolt looked on. "Now do you mind putting me down? I think Ratchet's getting a little antsy working by himself." Chip murmured to the engineer, hoping Ratchet hadn't heard that.

"A little?" Air Raid asked, not bothering to do the same. The he yelped as the medic stomped over and jammed another suction cup straight onto his forehead.

They ignored him as Wheeljack carefully set the boy back down on the floor. Then after a quick look up at Silverbolt, Skyangel pointed down as well and skipped after Chip, much to everyone's surprise.

"Maybe she's getting used to us." Fireflight said.

Slingshot snorted. "Or she's tired of having ol' mother hen always watching over her shoulder." He muttered.

Silverbolt shot him a glare but didn't retaliate. He was too busy listening to what Chip was saying to his Skyangel.

"See?" Chip said as he signed to the little girl standing next to his chair. "Wheeljack's nothing to be afraid of."

"Well…" Air Raid said slowly, "I'm not so sure about _that_…"

On the other side of the room Slingshot made a sound with his mouth that sounded an awful lot like something going _Boom! _and made a gesture like a fireball erupting. Or one of the inventor's creations exploding into a million itty bitty pieces.

Skyangel still didn't look convinced, but she did dry her face. If Silverbolt said he wasn't one of the mean robots, well, then he wasn't. Even if he did _look_ very scary…

"Say Chip," Air Raid spoke up, unaware of Skyangel's internal dialogue, "where'd you learn all this stuff anyway? I thought you were into electronics and stuff not…" he waved a hand in the little girl's direction, "people."

Chip shot the mech a look that said just how much he appreciated the stereotype before answering. "Yeah well," he mumbled as he moved back over to Teletraan-1 so he could finish helping Ratchet, "I've always liked learning new languages." He said. He thought about stopping there, and then reminded himself that these bots were some of the best friends he had. "And it's pretty useful," he went on hesitantly, "when your mom can only hear about half of what's going on around her." He told them.

He felt the Aerialbots' optics fasten onto his back. "Your mother is deaf?" He heard Silverbolt ask in surprise.

"You have a _mom_?" Fireflight put in, sounding even more surprised then Silverbolt.

The boy heard Air Raid sigh as if he shouldn't have expected any better. "Of course he's got a _mom_ 'Flight. Where did you think he came from? A science lab?" He asked sarcastically.

"No! Course I didn't!" Fireflight said before telling them, "I thought he was one of those test tube babies! You know, the ones you put in aquariums and put water on them so they grow."

There was a general groan from the rest of the Aerialbots. "You're thinking of sea monkeys Fireflight." Silverbolt told him with strained patience.

Chip practically heard Fireflight blink. "Oh." He said simply. "Right. Sorry Chip."

Chip nodded but didn't say anything, just kept his eyes on Teletraan-1's screen.

A small, gruff cough made him look him up to see Ratchet standing next to him now, typing lines of code into Teletraan-1 with just as much single-mindedness as Chip. But then he glanced down, and gave the boy a slight nod of encouragement.

Most people would have thought it was only a small sign, but Chip knew that it meant a lot coming from Ratchet. And he felt a little better, knowing that the ornery old medic had his back.

On the other side of the room, Wheeljack decided that now was probably as good a time as any to change the subject, before the Aerialbots put Chip more on the spot then he already was.

He snorted a muted laugh, immediately getting everyone's attention.

Ratchet scowled at him. "What?" He demanded irritably from Teletraan's console.

"Nuthin'," the engineer said with a wave of his hand, "I was just thinking."

Ratchet's optics narrowed at his best friend. "Thinking what?" He asked levelly.

"Well," Wheeljack said slowly, as if wondering if he should really say what had made him laugh, "it's just, you think little Skyangel's scared of me?" He pointed at his chest before returning to work on Air Raid and his monitors. "Just wait until she meets Prime. Now _that_ ought ta be interesting." He mumbled under his breath.

Those that heard him thought about the stern faced Prime and gave slight nods of agreement.

Wheeljack's shoulders shook in a short laugh as he thought of something else. "To be honest, I'm still surprised Prime agreed to go along with this. I mean, it's not like a lot of humans know where the _Ark_ is and all, much less join us for _sleepovers_." He pointed out.

"Yeah…" Air Raid drawled, "about that…"

"You forgot to tell Prime?!" Silverbolt hollered, and then immediately wished he hadn't as the fresh welds on his side stretched uncomfortably, making him flinch.

Down on the floor, Skyangel looked up worriedly at him. He quickly made a motion to show he was alright, although it was difficult as his wounds smarted again.

"Well it never really," Fireflight said as he sheepishly twiddled his thumbs, "came up."

Silverbolt stood there, frozen in surprise. "Came up?" He finally asked. "It never came up?! What, did you expect him to just appear out of the blue and ask, 'Hey Fireflight, you don't happen to have a human just lying around do you? It's inspection time and, you know, I was wondering.'"

Fireflight drew in on himself a little more. "…maybe." He admitted in a tiny voice.

A few syllables of incoherent babble escaped Silverbolt's mouth before he finally gave an explosive sigh and stormed out of the room.

"Of all the-how could they-_Agh_! He'll never let her stay _now_," was the last thing the others heard before the lead Aerialbot disappeared entirely.

Skyangel watched him leave with wide eyes. She looked around at the beings still in the room with her, and then seeing that they weren't going to go see if Silverbolt was alright, she ran out the door to go check on him herself.

Fireflight looked worriedly at the other mechs still there as the little girl ran out of the room after her caretaker.

"Do," he said slowly, "do you really think Prime will kick her out?" He sounded somewhere between completely heartbroken that she could still leave and guilty that it would be his entire fault.

Wheeljack scratched his helm in thought, unsure of the answer. Air Raid and Slingshot looked over at Fireflight, and then all three Aerialbots turned to stare at Ratchet. The medic valiantly tried to ignore them, but in the end he conceded defeat.

"Don't look at me!" He snapped at them before burying himself deeper into his work. "I'm not Prime's nursemaid. How the heck am _I _supposed to know what he's gonna say?"

...

At first, there wasn't anything Optimus Prime _could_ think to say. He was completely flabbergasted. A word he did not use lightly.

"There's…what?" He managed to ask the bot in front of him.

Silverbolt looked like a kid that had just lied to their parent and then immediately taken it back. "A human child followed us back from the airport in New Hampshire. I didn't know the others didn't tell you about her since I was sorta, er, unconscious for most of that, but she's a good kid and I know she'll stay out of the way while we figure out where she's supposed to be and-"

Optimus held up his hands to stem the verbal flow. "Silverbolt," he said, "_Silverbolt_!"

Silverbolt managed to stop talking.

Optimus watched him for any signs relapse. "Calm down," he ordered him, keeping his voice low as if he thought loud noises might startle the Aerialbot into babbling again, "and just start from the beginning. What happened?"

Silverbolt sighed before going through the tale again, although much slower then he had before.

Saying Optimus was surprised would have been pointless. He had learned a long time ago that surprises were just another fact of living, like - what was it the humans said? Death and Texas? He mentally shrugged. It was something like that, but the point was the same. There were just some things you could never escape, like death, surprises, and apparently the state of Texas.

But _this_, Prime thought as Silverbolt stood nervously in front of him trying not to fidget, _this_ was odd, even as far as surprises went. Most of the shocks the Autobot leader had experienced couldn't exactly be called 'good'. Most of the time it was 'Megatron had a new weapon that shrunk Autobots' or 'Prime woke up only to find he had been rebuilt inside of a turbo-gator in New York's extensive sewer system'. It had never been 'A human girl followed us home' before. In comparison the current surprise seemed ridiculously easy.

_"And yet…"_ Optimus couldn't help but think, _"somehow I get the feeling this is the most difficult one to solve..."_

A small blonde head suddenly peered around the side of the open door at Silverbolt's back. The nervous Aerialbot didn't see her of course, but Optimus Prime couldn't help but notice the small child when she appeared.

He supposed she couldn't help but notice him either, because her eyes locked onto him at once. She ducked back a little behind the corner when she realized she had been spotted, but she didn't vanish altogether. Instead she watched him stubbornly, blue eyes hardly even blinking.

Prime raised a quizzical optic ridge at the girl. For some reason this made the girl frown and quickly stick her tongue out at him.

Silverbolt must have wondered why Optimus suddenly looked so shocked, because he turned around just as the girl ducked back behind the wall. Although not before the Aerialbot caught sight of her blonde hair flying around the corner.

"Skyangel!" He exclaimed rather loudly. "What are you doing back there?"

The girl peeked back out guiltily, but didn't answer him. Silverbolt motioned her to come out from behind the wall, but she only slunk farther behind it with a nervous look at Prime.

She adamantly shook her head no, squeezing her blue eyes shut.

"Skyangel…" Silverbolt groaned, "don't be that way. This," he said slowly using a hand to point at his leader still standing behind him, "is Optimus Prime. My boss," he said, using simpler words for the young girl, "and he's not about to hurt you so why don't you," he pointed at the girl stubbornly hiding behind the corner, "come out of there?" He crooked a finger at her to try and get her to come out.

But the little girl shook her head again, refusing.

Silverbolt sighed in aggravation and ran a nervous hand down the back of his head. "She can't hear," he explained, "Chip says she reads lips or something like that, but she can't use it on you because of the, uh," he awkwardly gestured at his mouth and then Prime as if the other bot might not realize there was something in the way of his face, "battle mask." He finally mumbled. "It sorta freaks her out."

Optimus nodded in understanding, but made no apology for the mask.

Silverbolt felt too mortified to say anything else on the subject. He tried to convince Skyangel to come out of her hidey-hole again, but she remained just as stubborn as before.

The flying bot buried his face in his hands briefly. This was so _not_ how he had hoped this would go.

"Sorry Prime, I don't think I can convince her. She was so well behaved earlier today I swear. I don't know what's gotten into her." He apologized.

Prime just sighed, although neither the girl nor the embarrassed Silverbolt noticed. They did notice however, when he crouched down next to the Aerialbot leader and watched the girl with stern optics.

Soundlessly, he pointed a digit at the girl, and then pointed at the spot of empty ground right in front of him.

Then he waited. For a moment he thought she would refuse again, but the child once again surprised him.

Very, very slowly, the girl stepped out from behind her hiding place. She rung her hands nervously in front of her worn, long sleeved dress and Optimus saw that one of the pockets had torn away at the seam. She shot him another wary look, and then, with more caution then he'd ever seen a child use, she came and stood where he had pointed.

She was very small, he noticed now that he could see her, and quite skinny. She also looked like she needed a good scrubbing, what with the grime from the Decepticon attack still on her face and the concrete grit still in her bright yellow hair. But she didn't appear to be hurt or overly upset that she was alone among giants, so that was a good sign.

"Hello Skyangel," Optimus greeted her properly, "I am Optimus Prime."

She didn't react. Just looked over at Silverbolt anxiously and scuffed at the floor with one shoe.

Optimus frowned behind his mask. The child really couldn't hear him.

Feeling rather bad for her (it must be difficult dealing with all this, especially when she couldn't easily communicate with them or they with her) Prime gravely lifted a hand-

The girl flinched back as he did, eyes going very round as she obviously wondered if she should run away now.

-and gave her a small wave.

The girl blinked at him, surprised by the gesture. And then to Optimus' and Silverbolt's great relief, she laughed at him, little shoulders shaking slightly even though she didn't make a sound even now.

Optimus straightened up, Silverbolt doing the same after an anxious look at Skyangel to make sure she was alright. The girl must have taken this as her permission to leave, because she instantly ran back to the Aerialbot and hid behind his leg, peeking out at Prime more curiously now.

Optimus glanced curiously back. "Why were you calling her Skyangel just now?" He asked Silverbolt a moment later.

"Er," Silverbolt hesitated, "Fireflight picked it out, although Chip says she likes it. We haven't been able to figure out her real name." He confessed.

Optimus felt his optics narrow in thought. He looked down just as the girl ducked behind Silverbolt's leg again, little face disappearing. At first he thought he had managed to frighten her again, but then she suddenly sprung back out, smiling widely like a child shouting, "Peek-a-boo!"

Optimus chuckled as she ran back into hiding, enjoying her new game.

Silverbolt shifted in front of him and Optimus realized that his continued silence was making the already high strung bot even more anxious.

"I…see," he said, wondering what to do with the lost girl now, "so we currently have no way to contact her caretakers?"

Silverbolt resisted the urge to fidget as he admitted, "We don't even know who they are. Or even who _she_ is technically."

Optimus blinked in surprise. "She's got to have a name." He said bluntly.

From the answering sigh Silverbolt gave him, Optimus supposed this had been said a lot in the last twenty-four Earth hours.

"Yes, but she won't tell us what it is."

Optimus' optics narrowed farther in thought. Down on the floor, Skyangel shrunk back behind Silverbolt at the stern look. Was the tall bot mad at her for playing with him? Maybe he liked hopscotch instead? _"__He would certainly be good at it,"_ she thought, _"he's so tall..."_

"Hmm…" Optimus hummed suspiciously as he looked away in thought, "in that case we can't check the flight records for her name to see where she was headed. Although since she's so young whoever put her on the plane must have made special arrangements, especially if she was traveling alone. Perhaps we can find out who she is that way." He suggested, thinking out loud.

"Maybe," Silverbolt admitted, "but that'll still take some time. The airport's records ended up scrambled when the building was attacked. I heard Chip say it could take days for the authorities to sort out the mess. I don't think the airport had backed up their system anytime recently either."

Optimus frowned. So much for that idea. "See if they'll send us copies of the data anyway. Perhaps we can sort it out faster."

Silverbolt nodded. "Yes Prime."

Optimus thought another moment. Below them, the girl just watched as he stood there. She wondered if he was saying anything or if he was standing just as silently as she thought he was. Distantly she wondered what kind of voice he had. She knew her new guardian had a good voice. She could feel it whenever he talked while he was holding her. But this other bot was so tall…what did he sound like?

The Autobot leader looked up when something else occurred to him. "Did she bring anything with her? Anything that could have her name written on it?" He asked, unaware of the little girl's sudden curiosity.

Silverbolt looked somewhat puzzled. "She has a backpack." He said slowly. "But why would that have her name on it? She wears it. That's like," he made a confused face, "engraving your designation on your armor." Armor, unique as it was, was generally made for the one bot that requested it. Why would you need to write your name on something like that?

Optimus nodded. It was a strange habit to be sure, however. "Humans have an odd tendency to label the little ones when they're this young," Optimus told Silverbolt. "It could be that she has her name written on something she owns. Possibly her backpack or perhaps something inside it. A book, some school papers, maybe a drawing she made." He suggested.

Silverbolt's optics lit up. "Now that you mention it I do think I saw some papers sticking out of it. I'll check that right away sir."

Below them Skyangel frowned. What were they saying? She'd been trying to figure it out for the past few minutes, but Silverbolt was too far above her now. She couldn't see what words he was making. All she could get were bits and pieces.

_ She has a-wears-dessie nation on your armor._

Skyangel frowned more when Silverbolt stopped speaking for a moment. The other bot must be saying something now, although she had no way to tell what.

Whatever he said, it made her new guardian's eyes glow bright. _Now that you-think I saw some papers sticking-right away sir._

_"Papers?" _Skyangel thought in confusion. _"Something's got papers sticking to it? How funny."_

But then she realized what Silverbolt was referring to and suddenly it wasn't funny anymore. Not funny at all…

Her backpack, she realized with a start. They were talking about her backpack!

A small, ragged, gasp made both mechs look down again. Skyangel's eyes had suddenly gone very wide, her small mouth now in the shape of a little 'o' as something finally occurred to her.

"Skyangel?" Silverbolt asked worriedly as he knelt down to make sure she was alright. "Honey what's wrong?"

Skyangel didn't answer. Instead she turned straight around and bolted out the open door. She hung a sharp right onto the corridor that led up to the top levels before Optimus and Silverbolt lost sight of her.

"Huh," Silverbolt hummed in a mix of confusion and worry, "that was strange."

Optimus frowned at the understatement, although his battle mask hid the expression.

In front of him, Silverbolt turned anxiously between his ward and his commander as he tried to decide what to do now.

He jerked a thumb at the door behind him. "I think I need to go make sure she's alright." He said, sounding almost surprised at himself for saying that in the first place. Internally he tried not to question too much why he felt it was so important to check on the little girl. After all, he knew that the other Aerialbots, especially Fireflight and Skydive, would keep an optic on her. They were probably even more taken with the little human then he was.

Silverbolt refused to examine that statement even more then the first as he turned to leave, however a hand on his shoulder held him back.

"Silverbolt," Prime said slowly when the Aerialbot turned with a questioning look, "about the child…"

Silverbolt stared at his leader for a moment before turning to face him head on again. "What about her?" He asked cautiously, as if preparing himself for a disappointment. "She…_is_ allowed to stay, isn't she? I mean, just in case her parents didn't label her like other children?"

Prime held in a sigh. The girl had only been here, what? Twelve, fourteen hours at the most and already Silverbolt and the others were wrapped around her digits. This was not going to be easy.

"The problem isn't that she can't stay," Optimus said slowly, "as long as you realize that she's got to go back to her own home. With her real family." He met Silverbolt's optics, trying to gauge his reaction. "You _do_ realize that, right?"

Silverbolt was silent for a long minute, thinking carefully over Optimus' words.

"I do," he finally answered softly, "I know there's got to be someone out there looking for her, honest, but until then can't she just stay here with us? She's got," he said slowly, trailing off, "nowhere else to go…"

Optimus narrowed his optics at him thoughtfully. _This_, he felt, did not bode well for when they finally _did_ find the girl's family. If things kept going on like this, then by the time she finally got home the Aerialbots would probably try and follow her!

But still, Optimus doubted that her family was anywhere close by, so it appeared she _would_ be here for a few days at the very least. And that didn't include how long it might take them to find out just who her family was. And she _did_ need a place to say…

_"Darn it," _Optimus thought to himself in resignation, _"why must human children be so cute?"_

That was his story and he stuck to it, as long as it didn't leave the confines of his head.

"And you're prepared to take full responsibility for her? Make sure she's fed and clothed until her parents are located?" He asked Silverbolt sternly.

Silverbolt hesitated a split-second, thinking. Vaguely he thought it was strange that saying yes the second time was still just as hard as the first.

But then he nodded. "Yes." He said firmly.

_"And we'll all help!"_ A small voice suddenly appeared in the room, surprising Silverbolt and Optimus.

"Fireflight?!" Silverbolt yelled as he looked down at his comm. unit. "Are you eavesdropping? _Again?!_"

Fireflight dutifully ignored the question. _"We'll all look after her Prime! Promise! Won't we guys?"_

The other Aerialbots could be heard mumbling in the background, some more cheerfully then others. Even Slingshot grumbled an affirmative, although Optimus noticed that there was a loud, _"Ow!" _before the irritable bot said anything at all.

Silverbolt just muttered something about needing to get his comm. line password protected.

A ping announced a new party on the channel.

"Fireflight!" Ratchet barked through as he overrode the basic security keeping him off the Aerialbot line. "What the heck do you think you're doing?! I told you that it doesn't snow in deserts so quick tearing up paper and trying to make it look like it has!"

Silverbolt could practically hear the confused blinking on the other side of the line. "But I'm not doing anything Ratch'. I'm still in the room with Air Raid. And Skydive said I'm not allowed to tear anything up in here or I'll electrocute myself."

"Where are you Ratchet?" Prime stepped in. "What's going on?"

There was an irritable huff on the other end. "It's raining torn up paper, _that's_ what's going on. I stepped out to get some extra feed wires for our project-"

There was a loud, indignant, _Hey!_ in the background from Air Raid.

"-and when I passed the main entrance on the way back, the wind blows 'em all inside and covers me with them! And then some of 'em stick too cause they're covered in," he grumbled the words like it was the name of a deadly viper, "glitter glue."

Silverbolt and Optimus shared a very confused look. The _Ark_ had many peculiar things onboard. Glitter glue was not one of them.

"So…" Fireflight asked thoughtfully, "does this mean you're all shiny now Ratch'?"

Ratchet grumbled darkly under his breath, no doubt trying to de-shiny himself at that exact moment. "Shut up kid." He grouched before adding in a more professional tone, "Looks like they're coming from your hanger bay Silverbolt. You might want to check in on that."

...

The culprit wasn't hard to find.

"Skyangel!" Silverbolt shouted in surprise when he saw the storm that awaited him in the Aerialbot hanger bay. "What are you _doing_?"

She didn't hear him of course, and she was so caught up in her task of shredding things that she didn't notice him standing dumbfounded in the open doorway.

Silverbolt watched, mouth open, as he watched her grab the bottom of her bright red backpack and turn it upside down to viciously shake the rest of the papers out of it. They landed with a shuff on the floor, along with a thin, hardbound children's book.

She ignored the book and went straight to the papers, ripping and tearing and crumpling them up into unrecognizable wads as fast as her little hands could. Then she chased all the scraps out the open hanger door with a flurry of throws, shooing them away when the wind outside tried to blow them back in.

Silverbolt could only look on as he tried to make his processor function enough to figure out what he should do. Why was she even doing this in the first place?

Loud footsteps snapped him out of his stupor as Prime and the rest of the Aerialbots caught up with him.

"What the…?" Air Raid muttered, trailing wires and a very unhappy Ratchet.

Skyangel was still too busy chasing paper out of the wide open door to see them. The only sound she made was a somewhat discordant hiccup and a ragged sounding breath as she stomped and shooed and flapped, nearly slipping out the window herself more then once.

Silverbolt ran through the door and swooped the child up before she fell out of the _Ark _with all her frenzied throwing. "Skyangel what are you doing?!" He asked loudly with a worried look out the hanger door. It was a long way down to the ground, longer then a human like her could survive if she fell. He'd have to keep the door closed from now on, or at least rope it off so she wouldn't accidentally tumble out.

Skyangel didn't answer him. She was too busy rubbing her eyes with sticky, glittery, hands, but the large tears rolled down her scrunched up face anyway. She slumped down in Silverbolt's hands, hiccupping and sobbing breathlessly.

_No leave!_ She signed as she cried. _I don't wanna leave you! I'm nobody! Nobody! I don't wanna go back there! And they don't want me anyway. Please don't make me leave! _She pleaded, gasping as her crying got worse again, as if she was terrified he would push her away no matter what she said.

Silverbolt looked around at the bits of paper still floating around the hanger bay as Chip slowly deciphered her shaking motions. Not a single piece of paper was left whole. Not even the inside cover of her book. Silverbolt thought it was like standing in the midst of some bizarre confetti. Some pieces were colored, some were glittered, some were plain, and some had crayon lines all over them. There were tiny pieces she had made sure to rip extra good while others were hardly touched.

One of these floated past Silverbolt's head and he watched it with a twisted feeling in his gut. There were two stick figures colored on it in crayon, one holding the other much smaller one. The little figure – wearing a blue dress Silverbolt noticed – had bright yellow hair and a matching bow, but the taller figure had short hair that was so dark a brown it might have been black, giving the mech the feeling that they weren't related, even if it was only a seven year old's crayon drawing.

The drawing fell to the floor near his feet and Silverbolt looked back at the sobbing child sitting in his hand. "Skyangel is this," he paused and lowered his voice some, not sure what the others would think, "is this about your real name?"

The girl went stiff, as if she was trying to decide if she should lie or not. But then she sobbed and nodded, yellow hair sticking to her face where she'd gotten spots of glitter glue on her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth.

_I'm sorry! _She signed with shaky hands. _I'm sorry! Don't-_ her fingers shook too much for a moment before she could add _–don't be mad! Please don't be mad at me! I'm sorry!_

Any doubts that this was some kind of setup began to ebb away from the more suspicious bots when Chip told them what she said.

"Geez," Spike said in a low voice. He and Bumblebee had just joined the group of waiting bots, wanting to find out what they were all watching. "She sounds terrified."

Chip looked up at the girl shivering in Silverbolt's hands, an awful idea beginning to gnaw at him. "Yeah…" he mumbled.

Prime and Ratchet shared a look, the same idea occurring to them. Ratchet's face was positively black as he looked back over at Skyangel.

The medic suddenly spun away, grumbling something in old Cybertronian that the younger Aerialbots couldn't understand, although the gist was clear enough.

"Come on you," Ratchet growled, snapping out a hand and snagging Air Raid behind the collar to drag him back down to where Teletraan-1 was waiting, "we're going to get this fraggin' program finished before tomorrow if I have to weld your feet to the floor. You coming Chip?"

Chip called out a yeah as Air Raid protested to the whole welding-of-his-person-to-the-floor thing. Prime and the other Aerialbots followed them slowly, although not before looking over at their friend and the little girl one more time.

Silverbolt ignored them all as Skyangel shivered again. He adjusted his hold on her and rubbed her small back with a finger, keeping in mind that she was a lot more fragile then he was.

"Come on baby girl," he murmured to her gently, "let's go get you cleaned up."

Skyangel's only answer was to twist around and wrap her arms around his finger. She didn't let go even when they reached the sink and Silverbolt didn't pull away.


	4. Chapter 4: Adventures in Ordinary

Whew! That took awhile! I don't know if you'll believe it, but this chapter turned out to be 28 and a half pages long! o.O When I finally got done with it and realized I needed to edit it next, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. n_n;

Anyway, of course I'd love to thank all of y'all that reviewed, faved, and alerted my story. You're all great and I love seeing those little alerts in my inbox so feel free to keep it up! ::hearts to you all!::

So thank you PurpleLunaWolf, Mercedes Wolfcry, Target Ninja, D-RockxIronhideForever, and Trapezoidal. You guys are great. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas/Happy New Year, and that all of you readers enjoy this next installment of Skyangel because I sure enjoyed writing it. :)

Until next time, however long that'll be! ;3

...

Skyangel

Chapter Four: Adventures in Ordinary

"What about this one?"

Carly turned around and looked up to see what Silverbolt was holding now. She bit her lip to keep from laughing so she wouldn't hurt his feelings.

"That's a sun dress Silverbolt," she told him patiently, "she'd be too cold wearing that in this weather."

Silverbolt looked at the little dress again. It was bright yellow with white flowers on it, but there were no sleeves at all and it would be December soon.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He mumbled as he carefully finagled the dress' hanger back onto the rack.

Carly gave him a friendly grin. "That's why you asked me to come after all. Who knows better about little girls then someone who used to be one, right?"

Silverbolt smiled a little at the human teenager. "Right." He answered.

They continued strolling through the open air market, making their way through the crowds of shoppers that had come out despite the cold weather. It was slow going, not just because Skyangel just had to stop and look at _everything,_ but the other humans kept stopping to stare at the Autobot in their midst, most of them with their jaws dropping into their scarves.

Silverbolt nodded politely at a woman with her two children. "Excuse me," he mumbled before stepping around them so he could follow the bob of bright blonde hair making its way through the people.

Silverbolt kept an optic on the blonde hair in case she disappeared altogether as he and Carly stopped at another clothes stand. They were looking for clothes because – _apparently_ – human children couldn't wear the same one for days. Silverbolt wasn't sure why exactly since it seemed that one piece of fabric was just as good as another, but that's what Carly and Sparkplug had told him when they'd suggested this trip earlier today.

Spike had just pointed out that he'd worn the same pair of jeans all week, but his dad had said that proved his point more then anything.

"Well what about this then?" Silverbolt held up something else.

"That's too big for her." Carly said simply, hardly glancing at the shirt he had now. "And it's made for boys."

Silverbolt put it back. "What difference does that make? Shirts are shirts."

Carly bobbed her head to the side as she moved on to another rack. "Except when they're blouses or tunics or sweaters or vests or camis or-"

"Alright, alright!" Silverbolt conceded quickly. "I get the picture. 'Shirts' is a broader category then I thought."

Carly glanced up at him and smiled, one corner of her mouth sliding up. She hadn't expected Silverbolt to enjoy clothes shopping exactly, but he had insisted on coming when he'd learned that Skyangel would have to go. Honestly, Carly was impressed he had held up this long. Spike would have been on his fifth, "Are you done yet?" by now. Fortunately he was off with his dad right now, looking at furniture.

"Here," Carly said patiently, picking a long sleeved shirt off of the hanger she was sorting through, "we're looking for things like this. Warm, with long sleeves and high collars, size 7/8." She leaned around the rack of clothes to look at Skyangel as she ran grinning by, a brightly colored pinwheel one of the merchants had given her spinning in her hand.

"Maybe smaller since she's so skinny." Carly amended as she pushed another summer dress out of the way, making the metal hanger screech against the metal tube that supported it.

Silverbolt ignored the sound as he scanned the sky again. It was clear. There weren't even any clouds puttering about in the chill wind today.

He sighed and looked back down at the clothes' rack and did his best to ignore the saleswoman staring at him from behind the table she was sitting at. Somewhat dismally he flipped through the selection with a large digit. He vented another sigh. It was pointless. They all looked the same to him.

Silverbolt sighed, giving up on the human clothes. _"This is going to be harder then I thought…"_ he muttered to himself as he sat down on the pavement in front of the shop, drawing his legs up to his chest so he wouldn't block the pedestrian traffic. He hadn't lied earlier when he'd said he'd take care of the little creature. And yes, he cared about Skyangel and wanted her safe and warm and whatever else it was that human children needed.

But that still didn't mean he knew what to do with her!

"This?" He asked holding up a different hanger. "How about this?"

Carly glanced up at the object in his hand and then quickly did a double take.

"It's still in its original packaging," Silverbolt pointed out, "that's good right?"

Carly looked around to see if anyone was staring. Of course they _were_…

"That's a bra Silverbolt. She doesn't need that yet." She told him in a slightly strained voice. She was still trying to make up her mind if she was more amused or embarrassed by her friend – the _Autobot_ – holding up the feminine underthing.

Silverbolt looked at the thing he was holding. It was white and had funny snaps all over it. And, he admitted to himself, it _did_ look too big for Skyangel.

"But I thought human females had to wear these?" He asked in confusion.

The woman running the booth suddenly laughed, unable to hold it in any longer. "That's a maternity bra Mister Autobot. I highly doubt the little girl needs one a _those_." She laughed again.

Carly joined her. Amused, she decided. She was definitely more amused.

Sulking somewhat, Silverbolt put the maternity bra away. He'd have to get Ratchet or somebody to explain this later since _obviously_ Carly was too busy laughing at him to do it herself.

She didn't say anything to him until she was sure she wouldn't laugh again. She figured she had dented the Aerialbot's pride enough for one day. "You let me worry about the underthings Silverbolt." Carly told him with a grin that said she thought he was getting in way over his head. "_You _just worry about how you're going to pay for all this. I can spot you something if you like." She offered.

Silverbolt blinked at her, normal mood returning now that they had stopped laughing at him, although the saleslady did keep snickering every so often. "Thank you, but no. I've already got that part taken care of."

Carly pulled the hem of a t-shirt out to look at the pattern on the front, and then let go of it seeing it was another boy's shirt. "How?" She asked curiously as she moved on.

Silverbolt followed her around the circular clothes rack, not sure what else to do. She seemed to have the 'looking at various possible purchases' thing covered. "The man that owns the land the market meets on gave me these green papers with faces and female lip marks on them." He told her. "Said it was 'on the house', although I don't know how that works since there's not even a roof for this place." Silverbolt mumbled as he once again cast a wary optic towards the sky, as if he expected Seekers at any moment. He felt exposed walking around like this, but unlike most malls, this one was outdoors where he could actually _fit_.

The mech fidgeted to keep from knocking one of the stalls he was sandwiched between over. He used the term 'fit' here in its loosest sense of course because that was the only loose thing going on right now.

_"It's better then leaving Skyangel alone,"_ he told himself again as Carly moved on to the stall next door. Silverbolt followed her, shaking his legs out in relief as his circulation started working again.

"It's called 'money' Silverbolt. It's our currency." Carly explained as she continued her search. "And that was very nice of him."

Silverbolt nodded. "I would have told him it wasn't necessary – we don't go around saving people from the 'cons so they'll do us favors of course – but, well…" he trailed off uncertainly.

"It_ is_ necessary if you want her in something other then that ratty old dress." Carly finished for him.

Silverbolt nodded again. "I wonder if she was going somewhere warm." He mumbled thoughtfully as Skyangel raced by again with her pinwheel.

Carly shrugged. "It's possible I guess…" She trailed off, only half listening as she concentrated on the shopping.

Silverbolt's attention started wandering again. He scanned the crowds, the sky, and then looked down again as something suddenly ran into his foot.

He looked down to see Skyangel beaming up at him. She held up her brightly colored pinwheel for him to see.

He smiled down at her. "Yes, it's very pretty," he told her dutifully. She was doing much better today then yesterday afternoon. After her outburst with the backpack, everyone had been much more subdued the rest of the day. Ratchet had fairly locked himself in his lab with Wheeljack and Chip until the teenager had reminded him that if he didn't get home on time his parents would start to worry again. Even Fireflight had been quieter then usual. Before that everyone had just assumed he only had the one volume setting – loud and obnoxious – but he'd hardly made a peep the rest of the day.

But after she had been cleaned and fed and comforted for the night, Skyangel had fallen soundly asleep against Silverbolt's shoulder. She hadn't woken up until the next morning.

The little blonde-haired girl laughed as a gust of wind suddenly blew past, making the different colored spokes of her new toy flutter around their center and her hair fly off to the side. The wind died down for a brief moment, but then kicked back up, making her giggle again, even as she started to shiver with the cold November air.

Silverbolt frowned. Were human teeth supposed to chatter like that or should he start to worry? Again.

"We should've gotten you a coat first baby girl," he grumbled to himself.

But since they hadn't, the Aerialbot leaned down and put his hand on the ground instead, using it to shield Skyangel from the cold moving air.

"There," he said decisively, although that was more for his benefit then hers, "is that better Skyangel?"

Skyangel looked up at him, a slightly bemused expression on her face. Then she frowned back down at her pinwheel as the spokes slowed down and stopped a moment later. Her lips puckered in a pout as she frowned down at her un-moving toy. That was no fun, although she _was _warmer now. She didn't like being cold.

She blinked up at Silverbolt and then grinned again as an idea popped into her head. She turned around and held her pinwheel around the tips of his fingers where the wind still whistled pass. The pinwheel immediately started spinning again.

She giggled when it did. Silverbolt grinned at her. "That's my girl." He mumbled.

Behind them, Carly had a shirt pressed to her mouth to keep the pair from seeing her smile. She wasn't the only one either.

"Oh, they're so cute!" A young woman not much older then Carly said from the next clothes rack over. She looked like she was somewhere in college and she had a shiny new engagement ring on her left hand. She grinned at Carly when the other human looked up. "He's so good with her."

Carly turned just in time to see Skyangel laugh at her pinwheel as it spun faster and then slower as the wind played merry havoc with its rainbow striped spokes. The little girl half turned and held the little toy up higher for Silverbolt to see. She was so taken with the little toy that Carly couldn't help but grin. It was like she'd never seen one before.

"Yeah he is." Carly answered the other woman.

The two ladies watched Skyangel play with her pinwheel as Silverbolt nodded encouragingly at her whenever she looked up at him.

"Is he helping you baby sit?" The other girl eventually asked as she went back to her shopping.

Her question startled Carly some. "Huh?" She asked in confusion.

The other girl's face fell some. "The little girl? Aren't you baby-sitting her? She's your little sister right?" She said, sounding more and more unsure of herself.

"Er," Carly hesitated trying to piece together what to say, "no, she's not my little sister, although we _are_ baby sitting her, sort of…" she trailed off and tried to rebury her nose in the rack of winter clothes, hoping the other girl didn't ask too many questions. It'd be just their luck that she knew someone who knew someone who worked in the childcare system that would take offense at the idea of a three story Autobot looking after a seven year old while they looked for her parents.

The other girl laughed nervously, sensing the awkwardness now. "Oh, sorry, it's just," she stammered lightly, "you two look so alike. I thought you were related."

Carly shrugged and smiled back even though she wanted the conversation to end. She supposed she could understand how the girl had thought that. Despite the fact that they were both the same shade of blonde, they also had blue eyes, although Skyangel's were clearer, like the sky, while Carly's leaned more towards gray.

Carly just smiled pleasantly and moved on with her clothes sorting, the other girl doing the same but in the opposite direction. Carly waited until she was out of earshot before asking Silverbolt quietly, "Spike told me about what happened yesterday. Did you guys find out anything from the girl's backpack? Like her name or a home address?" She asked hopefully.

Silverbolt frowned at the young woman. "We found a name written under one of the straps," he admitted, "but it's not hers. Unless her name's Joshua Jones." He muttered sourly. He had hoped they would find _something_ useful on the bright red backpack Skyangel had brought with her, but apparently no such luck.

Carly sighed. "Jones huh?"

Silverbolt nodded. "Yeah, Ratchet says it's a pretty common surname for humans. Skydive looked up how many Joneses live around the airport we found her at…" he stopped talking, frowning into space.

Carly looked up at him, bracing herself. "How many were there?"

Silverbolt's shoulders slumped. "1,590,432 in the United States. And it looks like _half_ of them live near or in New Hampshire." He grumbled hopelessly.

Carly flinched. "So even if Joshua is her older brother or some other relative, we've still got a lot of people to sort through."

Silverbolt nodded glumly. "Yep." He mumbled. "At this rate it'll be a miracle if we find her family by Christmas."

Carly gave Silverbolt a sympathetic look. "Maybe not." She said, pausing in her shirt-search. "They're probably looking for her too, so maybe if we watch the news we'll get lucky. That and once the airport sends us their passenger lists for that day, it should narrow it down some. We'll just look for how many Joneses under the age of ten were flying alone on the day the Decepticons attacked. There shouldn't be too many, even if it _is _the fifth most common surname in America."

Silverbolt's optics nearly fell out of his head. "It's the _fifth_?" He asked loudly, resisting the urge to hang his head and groan.

Carly sheepishly stuck her nose back in the clothes rack. "Maybe…" she mumbled.

Silverbolt was just glad he was already sitting down when she'd told him that…

"Aha!" Carly cried a moment later as she pulled a promising set of jeans out of the picked over mess. Black Friday had been good to this little outdoor mall she guessed. "Finally, I think I've found something." She said triumphantly, holding the jeans up in front of her for inspection. She nodded her approval when they passed the test.

"It looks like we've finally found the right place." Carly said to herself as she pulled some more clothes out. There were a few shirts and a skirt Skyangel's size nearby. "Now we just need some tights so she won't freeze her legs off in this thing." She said as she held the skirt up for a better look.

Carly frowned as she added her findings to the pile of 'things-to-show-Skyangel'. "That just leaves a jacket. Figures we can't find one since it's probably what she needs _most _right now." She mumbled to herself as she finished picking through the clothes rack before making her way back over to where Silverbolt and Skyangel still sat.

Skyangel – just unable to keep herself still with all the exciting new things going on all around her – was running around Silverbolt, pinwheel held high to catch the air. Silverbolt watched her, wondering if running was safe with all these people walking around her, but since she was quiet most of them didn't seem to mind her presence. Although the giant Autobot she was with might have deterred any other complaints as well…

Carly smiled at the girl as she came around Silverbolt's side again and held up her findings. "Alright Skyangel, what do you think of these?"

Skyangel came to a somewhat skidding halt when she saw the older girl. She glanced up at her shyly and then slowly hid the pinwheel behind her back and toed the concrete with one battered Mary-Jane. She glanced away, unconsciously taking two small steps closer to Silverbolt as Carly came and crouched down in front of her.

"What about this one?" Carly asked, holding up a t-shirt with a flower on it. "Like or no like?" She signed the word _like_ for Skyangel. Chip had made sure to teach it to her before they had left.

Skyangel shyly peeked up at her from under long blonde eyelashes, and then glanced at the shirt. She quickly shook her head before going back to staring at the ground beneath her feet.

"Okay," Carly said, putting the shirt aside, "that's a no. What about this one?" She held up a long sleeved shirt that had funny Christmas-like penguins on them. They had little flight goggles on their heads and were standing in a line to jump off of an ice cliff into the ocean.

The picture made Skyangel grin, but she tired to hide it. She nodded just as quickly as she had shaken her head before.

"Okay, our first yes. That's exciting. Now how about this-"

She got no farther. She had no sooner uncovered the third shirt then Skyangel suddenly gasped. She reached out to grab the shirt so she could see it better, pinwheel dropping to the ground behind her, momentarily forgotten.

Skyangel didn't even notice. She was too busy admiring the picture on the shirt. It was a kitty! And it was sparkly! And it had long sleeves, which she liked. It was rather cold on their spaceship and all.

She sent an anxious look up at the girl holding it for her. She didn't look like she was just showing it to her. But they wouldn't actually let her have it, would they? It was just too pretty for someone like her.

_Like?_ The older girl signed at her with a smile.

Skyangel looked at the shirt again and used a hand to pet the kitty's collar. It was fluffy.

Hesitantly, as if she still thought this might be some kind of trick, Skyangel nodded.

But Carly just smiled at her. "Okay then, now we're getting somewhere." She put the shirt in the yes pile. "Now what about these honey? You like these too or should we try them on?" She asked, holding up the jeans and skirt in different hands.

Skyangel shrunk back a little bit, embarrassed. She could hardly believe that she had put the fluffy kitty shirt with the other one so fast.

The little girl quickly nodded at Carly. _They look nice._ She signed. This lady wasn't as good at talking to her as the boy with glasses was, but she understood some, so it couldn't hurt to try.

Carly grinned as she straightened up. "Well good! It looks like we've finally found something. Now all we need is a coat and you should be set to survive an Oregon winter. Well," she shrugged as she straightened up, "at least for the next few days. If it takes any longer to find your folks then we can just wash these after that." She said it more for Silverbolt's benefit then Skyangel's.

"If it's coats you're looking for young lady," the stall owner spoke up as Carly re-gathered the clothes in her arms to pay for them, "then there's Mrs. Dawson about a row down that's still got some nice ones left. You should check with her first before you go wandering around this place. It's awful big when you're as small as her." She leaned over and smiled at Skyangel, giving her a little wave as well.

But Skyangel just ran behind Silverbolt. She had used up all her bravery just telling Carly what she liked.

The two older humans chuckled at her, endeared to the little girl. "Thanks, we will. So how much do we owe you?" Carly asked as she put the clothes on the table in front of the older lady.

Silverbolt zoned them out as the seller began to tally up the total for the different items. He looked down at Skyangel on his other side instead.

"You alright Skyangel?" He asked her. "You look anxious about something."

She did. The little girl was standing right next to him, still fidgeting nervously with the hem of her dress as she worried the ground with the toe of her scuffed shoe.

"Silverbolt?" Carly suddenly said, catching his attention again. "She says it's eleven dollars even."

Silverbolt looked up, confused for a minute. Then he remembered the green papers the land owner had given him earlier. "Oh," he said, reaching for his subspace, "right."

The crumpled ball of green paper appeared with a slight swoosh that had the hair rising on the neck of every human nearby. The older lady sitting at the table gave a squeak of surprise at the feeling of air being displaced around her, but Carly didn't even bat an eye. She'd gotten her squeaking out the first dozen or so times they had done that around her.

The papers landed in Silverbolt's palm and he stared at them. Now that he looked at them, they didn't have the same numbers printed on all of them. And the smallest one he had had a large five-zero stamped on the corner.

"Is, uh, is this enough?" He held out his hand for Carly to see.

She gave a friendly laugh. "Yes Silverbolt. That's more then enough." She took the fifty from the mess of crumpled up bills and held it out for the lady to take.

Silverbolt threw the rest into subspace again, not sure what to do with it. The lady gave another startled squeak.

"Goodness," she gasped as she opened her cash box, "that's some trick ya got there Mister Autobot." Neither Carly nor Silverbolt commented on that as she frowned into the box. "Oh dear, I don't have enough ones to make change. I'll have to go get some from the Saxons a few doors down. Do you mind waiting a few minutes while I run and get that for you?"

"It's not a problem." Carly reassured her. Then as the lady relocked her cash box and slowly stood up with it to go get more smaller bills for change, Carly turned toward Silverbolt and offered, "You can take Skyangel ahead if you want. I think she's pretty bored with this place. I can wait here for the change and catch up with you in a minute."

The Concorde looked down at the little human kicking at the pavement in boredom. It didn't look like even her pinwheel would keep her occupied for much longer now. That and he wasn't too keen on standing around here waiting either. "Yeah alright, we'll just head towards that other lady then. Thanks Carly."

Carly waved away his thanks as she turned to busy herself with some clothes more her size. Silverbolt just straightened up and held a finger out for Skyangel to take. "Well come on them Skyangel. Let's go find something fun to look at."

Skyangel grinned and eagerly took his one finger with her whole hand. Then with that imagined strength children think they have, she pulled him forward to find something other then clothes to look at.

She pulled him down the first row of booths at a run before slowing down and actually looking around. Silverbolt didn't say anything to her, not seeing the harm in it as long as she didn't run into anybody. It wasn't like she went so fast that he couldn't tell if any other humans were underfoot after all. She had small legs, even for a human.

After they had cleared the row of clothing stalls, Skyangel slowed down to look around. She darted from booth to booth like a hummingbird surrounded by bright, new flowers, before coming back to pull at Silverbolt when he didn't move fast enough to see what she was looking at.

"I'm coming Skyangel, I'm coming." He told her again as she pulled him towards a table that had mirrors and warped glass everywhere. "Be careful around this stuff baby girl. I think it breaks easy, even for humans." He told her.

Skyangel didn't see him speak as she giggled breathlessly and ran up to a floor length mirror sitting off to the side of the 'entrance'. She stood in front of it, smiling widely. Silverbolt saw when he leaned over her shoulder that the glass was wavy and twisted, doing funny things to their reflections.

"What the-?" He cocked his head and muttered. "I think this one's broken Skyangel. You wanna look at a different one? That one over there looks nice. It's got leaves around the edges and everything." He told her, gently tugging her towards the other mirror. "And its reflections are proportional." He added.

Skyangel shook her head at him and stayed where she was. Then when Silverbolt turned to ask her what she was doing, the little girl blew up her cheeks like a puffer fish and crossed her eyes at the mirror.

The reflection ballooned out like some kind of cartoon, catching Silverbolt off guard. But Skyangel only laughed at the funny picture it gave her.

"Oh, I get it," Silverbolt mumbled as Skyangel waved her arms at the mirror like an ape and laughed again, "it's like one of those fun house mirrors Spike told us about."

Skyangel just crossed her eyes at the mirror again and giggled. Then she turned and looked up at Silverbolt expectantly.

"Uh…" Silverbolt hummed uncertainly, "…what?"

Seeing his confusion, Skyangel tugged at his arm and pointed at the mirror as if to say, "Come on, it's your turn now."

Silverbolt blinked. "Oh." He mumbled again, giving the mirror another hesitant look. "I dunno Skyangel…" he trailed off uncertainly. He wasn't one for making faces in public really.

But Skyangel pouted up at him. She clasped her hands together in front of her and hopped up and down a little in clear, _Oh pleeeaseeeee?,_ fashion.

"Well…" Silverbolt hummed with a surreptitious glance at his surroundings. He half expected Fireflight or Air Raid to just pop out of nowhere and start mocking him.

He shook his head when he realized how ridiculous that sounded. His brothers were still back at the _Ark_, miles away from here. That and it wasn't like there was anywhere for them to _hide_ around this human market anyway…

"Okay," Silverbolt gave in reluctantly, "okay Skyangel, only for you. Just, uh…" he looked down at the little girl, "just don't tell Fireflight and the others, alright?"

Skyangel just danced expectantly below him, hands clasped together under her chin as she blinked large blue eyes at him.

Silverbolt gave a sigh that just about knocked the mirror over and then before he could chicken out, put his fingers in his mouth and went, _"Doi-eee!"_

Inwardly, he was surprised the mirror didn't crack. The warps in the mirror made his face stretch out and ripple like a reflection on a wavy pond. It _was_ rather funny looking, he thought, but nothing he'd be caught doing ever again if he could help it.

"Alright, alright, laugh all ya like Skyangel. Now let's get…going…"

Silverbolt trailed off as he realized it wasn't Skyangel laughing at him. In fact, Skyangel wasn't even there. The little girl had wandered off across the street where someone had set up a mass of stuffed toys for sale.

No. The laughter was coming from the mirror seller sitting a few feet away.

Silverbolt stared at the small, wrinkled human sitting behind all the mirrors. She laughed so hard that she ended up doubled over, even sitting on the tall stool she had. Silverbolt found it a miracle that she didn't just fall off.

"Uh…" Silverbolt would barely remember mumbling later, "Excuse me." Then he ducked his head and briskly re-joined Skyangel across the street.

"Thanks for leaving me like that Skyangel." He grumbled, embarrassed the old lady had seen that. "And you shouldn't just wander off around here. There're so many people around." He chided her as an afterthought. "Although I guess I could find you anyway by tracking your specific organic signature, but still, it's the principle that counts here. I think…"

But Skyangel wasn't paying any attention. She was too mesmerized by the giant, white bunny rabbit sitting in the middle of the table. It had large, floppy ears with pink middles and was almost as tall as she was. And it was so very, very soft.

Silverbolt watched, somewhat perplexed, as Skyangel hesitantly reached out a hand towards the bunny rabbit, but stopped before she actually touched it. Looking away, she withdrew her hand and stared at the ground as if she was suddenly ashamed for wanting to touch the rabbit.

All of Silverbolt's annoyed embarrassment suddenly disappeared "What's the matter Skyangel? Is there something wrong with it?" There didn't appear to be anything wrong with the rabbit. Well, Silverbolt rethought as he glanced at the stuffed animal again, maybe a few worn patches on the thing's paws and his sewn nose was a little threadbare, but it was clean and had both its eyes. That was more then he could say for some of the other stuffed toys he saw there.

But Skyangel still wouldn't look at it, even though she shook her head to say no, there was nothing wrong with the rabbit.

Silverbolt frowned. He could tell she wanted it. Her eyes kept flicking towards it, no matter how hard she tried to keep them away. And whenever her eyes did land on the large, stuffed bunny, this look would come into her blue eyes just for a split second before she managed to tear them away again. As if she had never seen anything like this bunny before in her entire life.

But then she would glue her eyes to the concrete beneath her feet and her shoulders would slump a little more. It was like she thought she shouldn't want it. Like maybe she thought she was doing something bad by just wanting the toy bunny.

Silverbolt's frown grew a fraction. It was all very strange he thought. Most children he had seen couldn't stop staring at toys, and the worst of them wouldn't stop shouting about them. Why was his Skyangel so different?

He gave a tiny shrug, but wasn't able to quite wipe away his thoughtfulness. _"Well at least she isn't like one of those loud, screaming children."_ He thought. Deaf or not, he had gotten the distinct impression that Skyangel had a way of making her demands known when she had them. Of course, she hadn't _made_ many demands so far…

"Silverbolt!"

Silverbolt looked up at the voice to see Carly waving an arm at him from the crowd, the familiar forms of Spike and Sparkplug following behind her.

Silverbolt waved two fingers back at his human friends and waited for them to reach him and Skyangel through the ever shifting crowds. Sparkplug laughed when they finally caught up with the Autobot and the little girl.

"Found a toy stand I see. Why am I not surprised?" The older man chuckled as he reached out and tousled Skyangel's blonde hair lightly. The girl startled some at his touch, but relaxed when she saw who it was. Silverbolt saw with relief that she smiled a little too when she saw Carly and Spike appear behind Sparkplug.

"So did you find what you were looking for?" Silverbolt asked the two males. They had disappeared shortly after they had arrived, saying that what they wanted couldn't be found on a clothes rack. Personally, Silverbolt thought they just wanted to avoid sweater browsing.

Spike grinned and triumphantly held up a sandwich bag filled with fairly greasy, fairly old bolts and washers about as long as the young man's middle finger. "Yep," he reported cheerfully, "everything we need to get that spare bed frame back together again."

Carly quietly laughed. "I can't believe you still had Spike's old bed Sparkplug. Don't you ever let anything go?"

Sparkplug scratched at his balding head in some embarrassment, but it was Spike who answered. "Are you kidding? My dad the pack rat let anything go? Our garage is packed with stuff that _I _don't even remember having." He laughed.

"Well anyway," Sparkplug interjected defensively, "it's a good thing I kept that old frame, otherwise Skyangel here would be sleeping in a drawer somewhere." He pointed out with a laugh.

Spike held up his hands in surrender. "True enough. True enough." He agreed, effectively ending the subject.

"So what else do we need here?" Silverbolt asked, hoping it wasn't too much more. He never would've guessed that human children needed so many different _things_ before all this had happened.

Carly inspected the bags in her hands. "Well, I think now the only thing she really needs is a coat. It gets awfully cold around here and the weather man said that a storm front is coming in the next few days with a cold front right behind it."

"It'll probably freeze this weekend too." Spike added.

Sparkplug sighed. "Joy. Just what my Christmas cactus needs."

His son rolled his eyes at the mention of the infamous Christmas cactus. "Aw Dad when are you going to get a real tree? Every year I pray that thing'll shrivel up and die so that you'll have a chance to finally come to your senses."

Sparkplug frowned and puffed his broad chest out. "Hey, that's my cactus yer talking about Spike. I decorate it every year, with lights and tinsel and everything." He shook a thick finger at his son. "That thing's older then you. Why, don't you know that I planted that cactus in the front yard the very first year-?"

"The very first year you and Mom moved into that house and it's been there ever since," Spike finished for him as if he'd finished this one sentence a hundred times before, "yeah Dad, I've heard."

Carly laughed at the two of them. "Aw but I like the cactus Spike. It's cute."

Sparkplug grinned victoriously, making Spike groan. "There," his dad said with a grin, "Carly understands. But don't worry son," the older man laughed as he clapped his boy on the back, "one day you'll have your own cactus and then you'll understand too."

"Oh geez I hope not." Spike moaned.

Carly laughed at him before holding her hand out to the little girl watching them curiously. "Come on honey, let's go find you a coat while these silly boys go on arguing."

Skyangel took the hand with a slow nod. _"Silly boys is right,"_ she thought as she gave Spike and Sparkplug one more uncertain look, _"they weren't really fighting over a cactus…were they?"_

She shook her head and thought, _"Nah,"_ before forgetting the matter entirely and walking with Carly towards the stand the clothes seller had told them about earlier. Spike followed behind them, wanting to put as much distance between him and the well worn 'cactus argument'. Sparkplug went to join them, but an uncertain sound from Silverbolt held him back.

"Something the matter 'Bolt?" The oldest human asked, looking up at the bot.

Silverbolt frowned thoughtfully. "Actually…" he said slowly, sneaking a look at the other humans to make sure they were a safe distance away before he continued, "I was hoping you could help me with a math problem…"

...

By the end of the morning, Skyangel had her coat, and just about everything else she would need for a few days stay aboard the _Ark_. She had warm shirts and some clean pants and, best of all, socks! And not just any socks. They were long socks that went up to her knees and had stripes on one pair and hearts on the other.

_I've never had new socks before. _She was signing to Silverbolt as they arrived at the _Ark_. _Not that I remember anyway. I guess Mama would've got me booties when I was a baby, but I don't remember that. Usually I steal socks from Fran, but hers are all itchy and ugly._ She told him, sticking her tongue out to illustrate her words.

Silverbolt had no idea what she was saying, no matter how attentively he watched her little hands move, so he just nodded and smiled nervously. "That's, um, that's nice?" He tried with an anxious, lopsided smile.

Skyangel saw the look and slumped in defeat. He still couldn't understand her. Of course not.

Silverbolt vented a soft sigh of his own when he saw Skyangel look away in disappointment. "This is getting ridiculous." He grumbled. "Having you guys translate is nice and all that," he told Carly as she and the Witwicky's came abroad the Autobot ship, "but you're not going to be here all the time. What do I do then?" He asked, sounding a little irritated.

"Well you have really good timing Silverbolt," Chip said as he suddenly rolled through the door, wheels spinning too fast to be safe as he pushed them quickly across the smooth floor, "because I think I've got something that might finally help with that." Chip announced as he came to a squeaking stop at the Aerialbot's feet and held a floppy disk up victoriously. "Ratchet and I finally got the language program to work." He exclaimed, beaming at their success.

Silverbolt raised his optic ridges at the floppy disk. "Really?" He asked, halfway between nervous and excited. "And it actually works? No…" some of his uncertainty slipped onto his face as he remembered Wheeljack's presence when the program was being formatted, "side affects?" He finished.

"Depends on your – _hurk_ – definition of – ugh – side affects." Air Raid added as he hobbled through the door after Chip.

Silverbolt made a face as his brother slowly crept into the _Ark's _entrance. He looked positively green, even under his white paint.

"Sweet Primus!" The words were startled right out of Silverbolt. "What happened to _you_?"

Air Raid didn't answer for a minute, just stood there wobbling uncertainly on his feet. He kept swaying and Silverbolt was pretty sure that if Air Raid took his hand off the door jamb, the other Aerialbot would end up laid out on the floor.

The queasy looking mech covered his mouth before stretching out a wavering arm to point at someone coming up behind him. "Ask – ugh – him."

Everyone turned toward the hallway Air Raid was shakily pointing at to see Ratchet just coming into view. Of course, everyone tried to look around him to see if Wheeljack was following.

"Ratchet?" Silverbolt asked in surprise. He'd never seen a mech leave the CMO's medical bay worse then when he'd arrived before…

Ratchet crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at them, wondering why they were all staring at him.

"What?" He demanded when they didn't turn away.

Suddenly no one wanted to say what they had all been thinking.

"Well-" Bumblebee started.

"We were just-" Spike added with an uncertain wave of his hands.

"Er…" was all Fireflight could think to say.

Silverbolt cleared his throat as Ratchet's irate look landed on him. "We, um, we heard that the, uh, language program was…finished."

Everyone else's optics flicked to Air Raid before flashing back to Ratchet and Silverbolt.

"Right…" Fireflight said slowly, "finished…"

The others ignored him.

Ratchet finally blinked and uncrossed his arms. "Oh, that." He said, most of his irritation fading now that he knew what was going on. "Yeah, we got it working. We got the bulk of the data in last night, but weren't able to test the beta program until this morning while you were all out. It had a few bugs-"

Air Raid blinked blearily at the docbot. "You, erh, call this a bu-_hic_!" Air Raid steadied himself as the sudden urge to hurl swamped him again. "A _bug_?" He whined when it receded.

Ratchet crossed his arms over his chest and refused to look at him. "-but after we tested the prototype on Air Raid-"

The poor mech groaned pitifully again.

"-it didn't take us too long to sort the rest of the program out." Ratchet finished, completely ignoring his guinea pi- er…his _patient _for the moment.

Before anyone could add any other sarcastic comebacks, Air Raid suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth and unsteadily darted from the room, nearly knocking over Ratchet in the process.

Autobots and humans stared as a slather of unpleasant sounds came from the hallway.

Fireflight's face scrunched up in disgust. "Ew." He mumbled.

With some difficulty everyone tried to pretend that hadn't just happened.

"Anyway," Ratchet started again, gesturing to the floppy disk still in Chip's hand, "we're ready when you are."

Silverbolt looked down at the small black square, a mix of nervousness and eagerness threatening to send him out in the hall after Air Raid.

Not sure what to do next, he looked down at Skyangel. She was still sitting in his hands, blue eyes switching between the different faces around her as she tried to piece together what was going on. From the confused lines on her scrunched up forehead, Silverbolt thought she hadn't been able to keep up with the conversation the whole time.

_"Just think,_" the excited part of his processor said, _"you'll be able to talk to her yourself before the sun starts going down!"_

_ "Yeah," _the less eager part of his processor answered back grimly, _"in between getting sick like Raid."_

Silverbolt swallowed and tried not to think about what would happen if this went wrong.

_"Besides," _he thought, trying to keep a firm grasp on his determination, _"it'll be worth it. No more relying on Chip and Carly to tell me what she's saying. I'll be able to talk with her myself."_

He kept a tight hold on that thought as he nodded back at Ratchet. "Well, alright then. What do I have to do-?" He started to ask when Fireflight's incredulous cry cut him off.

"Hey wait a minute! What's the deal with the floppy disk?!" He demanded, sounding slightly affronted by the whole idea.

Chip stared up at him in confusion. "It's to…transfer data?" He tried. He had thought the concept of a floppy disk was pretty straightforward, even to aliens.

Fireflight frowned at the human. "No, no, no," he said waving his hands in big, wide motions, "that's not what I meant. I meant why are we using a _human_ made floppy disk in the first place? Why can't we just do this with a straightforward wireless transfer from Teletraan-1?" He asked looking over at Ratchet.

Down on the floor, Spike suddenly snorted a laugh. "Wireless transfers?" He whispered to Chip with another snort of laughter. "Yeah, that'll be the day."

Ratchet didn't hear the boy's chuckles as he gave an annoyed hmph. "Because we don't have a transmitter to get the job done." He told Fireflight. "Most of that stuff was left back on Cybertron because we didn't think there'd be any practical use for it once we left the planet."

"So…" Fireflight drew out the word, looking uneasy, "why not just go back to Cybertron and get some? They'd still work here on Earth right?"

Ratchet frowned. He'd suggested that to Prime once they'd decided to establish a permanent base here on Earth, but he'd been shot down.

"Because it just isn't worth the trouble." Ratchet answered with a resigned sigh. "We'd have to sneak through the Decepticon space bridge just to get there – which has its own set of problems as you know – plus getting back in one piece with the Decepticons coming after us. Anything we grab would probably end up busted by the time we got back to the _Ark_, not to mention the injuries we'd end up with."

"Why go through all that trouble when the human stuff works just as well?" Bumblebee asked.

Ratchet nodded. "Exactly. It's a little slower then our stuff, but it gets the job done. So," Ratchet gestured graciously at Chip, "floppy disks it is."

Fireflight eyed the disk nervously and then quickly looked away.

Down on the floor Chip leaned toward Spike and whispered, "It's like watching a little kid that's about to get his shots." He whispered.

Spike nodded. "Yeah, where're the energon lollipops?"

"Since when do you have a problem with human technology anyway Fireflight?" Bumblebee asked as the boys laughed to themselves again. "Usually it's Slingshot arguing against all things human."

Fireflight immediately looked away in embarrassment. For a long moment he didn't say anything, just twiddled his fingers shyly.

"Well…" he finally mumbled, "it's not the human part." He admitted quietly, half hoping they wouldn't hear him. "I just think floppies are kinda…invasive. They make me uncomfortable." He mumbled.

Silverbolt sighed at his brother's answer. _"Well at least I'm not _that_ nervous."_ He thought to himself, unconsciously adjusting his hold on Skyangel so she wouldn't fall as she situated herself more comfortably in his hands. He looked down at her tousled blonde head and felt himself smile just a little. _"There's nothing to worry about," _he told himself, _"just think about how things'll be so much better when this is over."_

Across the room, Air Raid's hand suddenly jerked up of its own accord, fingers flashing between different signs.

"Sweet Primus," Air Raid groaned as his hand kept moving in an endless stream of babble that had Skyangel staring at him like he was crazy, "what's it doing now?!" He demanded, not able to understand what his hand was saying. "Docbot what did you _do _to me?" He moaned, covering his face with his other hand.

Ratchet hmphed, ignoring Air Raid's whining. "We put a little too much emphasis on forming the signs at first and it took away from understanding what they meant. Shouldn't take us five minutes to fix you up so quit your whining." He ordered.

Air Raid hung his head and gave up trying to make his hand stay still. Next to him, Fireflight just laughed at him.

"You look funny." He snickered at his brother.

To which Air Raid immediately used his other hand to whack his younger brother upside the head.

"I still got one good hand Fireflight!" He shouted at the bent over Aerialbot.

Silverbolt was too busy staring to break up the argument.

_"Frack." _He thought as Air Raid's hand kept sighing endless babble. _"This will not end well."_

Ratchet must have correctly guessed what Silverbolt was thinking because he came over and said, "Don't worry about it Silverbolt. We've made some adjustments since first trying the program out on Air Raid-"

"Yeah thanks a lot for that Docbot!" Air Raid looked up just long enough to shout before focusing again on Fireflight as he tried to break out of Air Raid's headlock.

Ratchet ignored the arguing pair and slapped Silverbolt on the back instead. "Relax Silverbolt," he told him again, taking the floppy disk Chip was offering, "It's not that invasive, no matter what Fireflight thinks. We don't even have to go to the med bay. Just hold still."

Silverbolt did so with statue-like perfection, Air Raid and Fireflight doing the same in front of him even though Fireflight was still in a headlock and one of Air Raid's feet was in the air because Fireflight had knocked him off balance. Out of the corner of his optics Silverbolt could just barely see a swish of yellow as Skyangel turned around to see what had startled him.

Silverbolt didn't even follow Ratchet with his optics as the medic moved to his side, floppy disk in hand. If his processor hadn't been so muddled up in what else might go wrong with this new program, he might have thought it was silly. He wouldn't end up like Air Raid just because he moved his optics…would he?

Ratchet calmly opened a panel on Silverbolt's chest, unaware of the lead Aerialbot's sudden nerves, and slid the floppy disk into an available port.

"There," he said with a small chuckle as he saw Skyangel twist herself around so she could see better, "That wasn't so hard was it Skyangel?"

Before she could answer, there was a loud smack across the room as Fireflight covered his optics with his hands. "I can't watch!" He announced loudly.

_That_ did nothing to ease Silverbolt's remaining nerves.

_"Don't move," _he started chanting to himself as time started to stretch uncomfortably, _"don't move, don't move, don't move, don't-"_

_ Tch!_ The floppy disk said as it was automatically ejected out of its slot, job finished.

"Done." Ratchet announced suddenly, taking the disk before closing up the panel again.

Silverbolt blinked at the abruptness. He looked down at his chest to see that everything was where it usually was.

"That's it?" He asked.

Ratchet leaned down and handed the disk back to Chip for safekeeping. "Yep," he answered, "and you're still alive." He grinned and winked down at Skyangel. "What a shock."

Skyangel smiled back at him. She liked him. He was funny, no matter what Fireflight said.

Speaking of Fireflight, Skyangel looked over her shoulder to see if he'd freed himself from Air Raid's hold yet.

He hadn't. Instead he was peeking through his fingers like a kid at a horror movie, despite the fact Air Raid's arm was still choking him.

"Is it over?" Fireflight whispered.

Skyangel giggled at him as Ratchet rolled his optics in exasperation. "I already said it was." He said, propping his hands on his hips as he watched Silverbolt.

Skyangel looked around and saw that everyone else was staring at him too.

"Well…?" Chip asked expectantly.

Silverbolt blinked. "Well what?" He asked.

_Did it work?_

Silverbolt's optics immediately locked onto the curious blue eyes peering up at him.

"Wah-what?" He stuttered.

Skyangel just blinked up at him. _Did it work?_ She asked again carefully. But then she blinked as she realized she wasn't even sure what that funny disk Chip had was.

Skyangel cocked her head to one side, yellow curls sliding away from her face. _What'd that thing do anyway?_ She signed. _Were you sick? Are you all better now?_

Dumbly, Silverbolt nodded. "Yeah," he mumbled and then gave a slight laugh, "yeah, much better."

Without any warning, one of Silverbolt's hands jumped suddenly to the side, nearly knocking Skyangel over as it jerked away from her. The girl frowned, but her expression immediately cleared when she saw the familiar signs her new guardian's fingers were making.

_You can talk!_ She signed excitedly, an indescribable expression of joy dawning on her small face.

Silverbolt nodded a little, still surprised about it himself. "Yeah, I guess I can." He said, fingers repeating what he'd said out loud.

_And I_, he told her with a grin as he decided that now was the perfect time for more surprises, _have something special for you._

Skyangel blinked at him curiously, but then laughed and danced in place. _You do?_

Silverbolt nodded. Slowly, he lowered the little girl back to the ground. He waited for her to hop to the floor before putting his hands behind his back to pull something out of subspace where Skyangel couldn't see.

Not quite sure how to do this, Silverbolt stood there awkwardly a moment. Skyangel just looked up at him expectantly.

Finally he cleared his throat, aware of everyone staring at him and said, "I, um, hope you like it."

Then he pulled a large, stuffed rabbit out from behind his back. It was the one that Skyangel had been so taken with at the flea market, the one with the threadbare nose and the fluffy, floppy ears.

Skyangel's mouth dropped open, making some of the others behind her chuckle. Silverbolt watched her little face carefully to see if she liked her present or not, but she was still too surprised to know herself. That was good thing right? Didn't children like surprises?

Silverbolt made another nervous sound in the back of his vocorder. "I thought you could use something soft." He told her a little sheepishly. "You know, to make you feel better what with all this…" he tried to find a good word for what was going on here, "weirdness."

Skyangel still hadn't taken her eyes off of the toy rabbit.

_Is he really for me? _She eventually asked him in small, quiet signs.

Silverbolt nodded, wanting to smile but still not sure if Skyangel liked his present yet. "Yeah." He told her. "Un-uh, unless you don't want it." He added quickly with a sinking feeling. "If, um, if you don't then I can give to Fireflight, I guess…"

On the other side of the room, Fireflight's head snapped up, squeezing out of his brother's headlock with a small, comic 'pop!'. "I get a present?" He demanded excitedly as Air Raid lost his balance with Fireflight's sudden struggle. "Where is it?"  
"In the mail." Silverbolt shouted back automatically, still watching Skyangel.

Fireflight's face fell immediately. "Aw…" he whined childishly, "I'll never get it now. My presents never get out of the stupid mail…."

Skyangel just shook her head, unaware that Fireflight was talking behind her. With choppy movements she fisted her small hands around the bunny's soft fur and gently tugged on it, as if she wasn't sure Silverbolt was going to give it to her now since she had been so uncertain about taking the bunny in the first place.

Silverbolt immediately let go of the bunny. It was almost the size of Skyangel herself and the only way she could keep it off the ground was by wrapping both of her skinny arms around it and holding it up high. Silverbolt almost lost sight of her as the bunny's ears flopped over Skyangel's face. It was so big – or maybe she was so small – that the bunny almost knocked the girl to the ground, but she managed to keep her feet under her with a small step backwards.

For a minute the only thing Silverbolt could see of Skyangel was the top of her blonde head peeking over the bunny's ears.

A giggle suddenly drifted out from behind the carnival-sized rabbit.

_His fur tickles._ Skyangel said after a good amount of squirming so she didn't drop her new friend.

Silverbolt grinned in relief. He took that to mean she liked the rabbit after all.

On the other side of the bunny, Skyangel blew a raspberry and gave another little laugh. _His fur keeps getting in my mouth!_ She giggled. _He's so -_

Silverbolt frowned. That last sign hadn't made sense. "He's what?"

Skyangel's fingers moved again, her rabbit nearly sliding out of her small arms, but the sign still meant nothing to Silverbolt.

The Aerialbot looked over at Ratchet standing next to him. "I don't know what that one means. I thought you said you got rid of all the bugs. What's going on?"

Chip gave a nervous cough. "I might be able to explain that. Since we had to use human technology to transfer the program we didn't have enough data space for the entire vocabulary."

"It's a space issue." Ratchet simplified. "There wasn't enough room on the disk for every word and sign out there."

Chip nodded. "Right, so in the end we had to pick and chose the words we thought she would most likely use."

"Sooo…" Fireflight hummed thoughtfully in the background. "What do we do when she uses words not in the program?"

Ratchet huffed. "You learn it the old fashioned way." Then he leaned towards Skyangel. "Can you spell that out for us sweetheart? We didn't understand that last part."

Skyangel blinked, but started spelling out the random word. _F-U-_

Air Raid snickered. Then Ratchet smacked him upside the head.

Skyangel continued, unaware of the other Aerialbot's momentary humor. _–Z-Z-Y. Fuzzy._ She made the word sign again.

"Oh!" Fireflight snapped his fingers. "The rabbit-toy's fuzzy. Ok, that makes more sense."

No one bothered to ask 'Makes more sense then what?'

"I guess it's not a perfect fix then." Silverbolt observed as Skyangel set her new toy down. He was heavy for a rabbit!

Ratchet shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe not, but it'll do."

"How were we to know you were going to get her a fuzzy bunny?" Chip put in.

Silverbolt supposed they had a point. Out of all the words he expected to use with Skyangel, fuzzy hadn't exactly been one of them. To be honest he wasn't even sure if he had even said the word 'fuzzy' before now…

Silverbolt looked down to see Skyangel looking back up at him.

_What do we do now?_ She asked him.

Silverbolt smiled at her. He'd been wanting to ask this question ever since it'd been decided that Skyangel could stay while they searched for her parents.

_Well,_ he signed, internal programming telling him what he was saying, _that depends._

Skyangel blinked. _On what?_

Silverbolt smiled a little wider. _What do _you_ want to do Skyangel?_

Needing a moment to think about that, Skyangel picked up her bunny again, wishing she could bury her face in his fur, but afraid of getting him dirty if she did.

Skyangel hummed to herself, thinking about what she wanted to do as she wrapped her arms securely around her bunny. Blonde eyebrows creased as she frowned thoughtfully down at her new toy and then at the back of her grey-dusted hands. She looked like she was trying to decide between playing with her new bunny and something else, although Silverbolt couldn't tell what that might be just yet.

Finally Skyangel gave a little sigh and shoved her bunny sideways so that she could hold him mostly with one arm so she could talk with her other.

_Can I be clean again please?_

...

It had taken them awhile to find something small enough on the _Ark _for Skyangel to use as a bath tub, but eventually Fireflight had found a cup that she could actually stand up in. Although Silverbolt had a sneaking suspicion that his brother had stolen it from one of the mini-cons…

Silverbolt sighed. He would worry about that later. Right now, he needed to focus on the files displayed on the data pad in front of him. He was sitting up in his usual chair in the Aerialbot hanger bay, the information from the New Hampshire airport scattered across the table in front of him. There were passenger logs, ticket purchases, meal plans, flight plans, employee data, and enough pictures to start up a yearbook for the entire east coast.

The problem was that it all resembled the electronic version of scrambled eggs. Or maybe it was more cat's cradle gone awry. Either way, the data in front of Silverbolt crisscrossed the various datapads in tangled knots of information that didn't make any sense in their present condition. Apparently when the Decepticons had been cut off in the middle of their download, the airport computers had crashed, jumbling up the data into nonsense that even the Autobots were having trouble decoding.

Silverbolt heaved a sigh as he found another set of special instructions for a flight stewardess to look after a child under the age of twelve; Mary Stewart read the name. An eight year old traveling from New Hampshire to Illinois, flight 257.

Dutifully Silverbolt listed the information into his own data pad. That could be his Skyangel, he thought vaguely as he wrote. Mary put his list of names at twenty-seven, all girls, all flying alone out of New Hampshire.

_"Well," _Silverbolt thought with a frown as he read over his growing list, _"all the girls and those annoyingly gender neutral names like Jessie and Dakota. How's that even a name anyway? I thought it was a state."_

But still no Joneses.

Silverbolt vented another harsh sigh. That had been the first thing he'd tried. He'd searched every inch of data for a little girl with the last name Jones, and when that hadn't worked he searched for every child, just in case this Joshua Jones was some kind of relative, and when that hadn't worked he searched for every woman with the last name, and when that didn't work he'd searched everyone! Now he was just plain searching.

And he still had nothing.

Frustrated and disappointed, Silverbolt leaned back in his chair and vented a deep sigh. "Fifth most common surname...ha!" He laughed sharply.

With a despondent whir of cooling fans, Silverbolt rubbed at his face with both hands, as if he could scrub away his weariness. This was getting him nowhere, but what else could he do?

Silverbolt vented a sigh. There was only one thing he _could _do if he wanted to get her home, so he picked up the datapad he'd thrown down, and got back to work.

Shortly after Silverbolt's list had grown from twenty-seven to thirty, Carly walked in, offering Silverbolt a welcome distraction.

"Hey Carly," Silverbolt said when he noticed the young woman come into the hanger, "are you and the others getting ready to leave for the night?" He asked.

Carly nodded as she readjusted her coat with one hand and grappled with her purse with the other. "Yeah, figured we'd done enough damage for one day." She told him with a grin. She must have spied the overload of information in front of Silverbolt because she asked, "Are you still looking through the airport's files?"

Silverbolt nodded tiredly. "Unfortunately." He admitted.

Instead of leaving, Carly scrambled up onto one of the chairs next to the Aerialbot. She spent a few moments looking over the different charts and lists.

"What have you found so far?" She asked after a long moment of glancing.

Silverbolt vented a loud sigh as he picked up his list. "About thirty girls around Skyangel's age flying by themselves." He told her with a frown.

"Yeesh," Carly muttered, "don't people travel with their kids anymore?" She asked nobody in particular before adding, "How many Joneses have you found so far?"

Silverbolt resisted the rare urge to swear outright. "A hundred and seventeen." He told her. "But preliminary searches aren't very promising. Everyone's either too young or too old or flying at different times then when Skyangel was supposed to. And besides," he added anxiously, "if her parents really are dead then why would any adult share her last name to begin with?"

Carly shrugged. "At least one of her grandparents would." She reminded him. "Maybe an aunt and uncle out there too. The problem is we don't _know_."

Silverbolt leaned wearily back in his chair. "You're telling me." He grumbled.

Carly squinted down at a couple of the datapads a moment more before she straightened up with a sigh. "Or it could be that we're just barking up the wrong tree in the first place. Joshua Jones doesn't have to be related to Skyangel. She could have just as easily gotten that backpack at a thrift store." Carly admitted.

Silverbolt's eyes hooked onto something that wasn't in the room with them. "Yeah," he eventually mumbled, "I know."

Carly blinked up at Silverbolt, feeling bad for him. "You know I could come back tomorrow to help you with this stuff. I've finished all my finals so I've got plenty of time to help you unscramble everything or," she stumbled, "or make calls or...something!" She insisted.

Silverbolt managed to drag his gaze away from whatever he'd been thinking about. "Yeah, that'd be great Carly. I'd sure appreciate the help." He frowned as Fireflight suddenly came into the hanger bay, half of a cup of energon clamped in his mouth as he grabbed something off of a table, ignoring Silverbolt and Carly.

"You're a lot more help then my lazy, no good brothers," Silverbolt added loudly. "They helped me for five minutes before suddenly remembering they'd promised to help someone with something else."

Fireflight finally noticed them. "Huh?" He asked past the cup clamped between his teeth as he looked over at Silverbolt.

Carly put a hand to her mouth to laugh as Silverbolt shook his head and sighed. "Nothing Fireflight, just...never mind."

Fireflight gave a miniature shrug, and then promptly left the room.

Carly gave a proper laugh as Silverbolt finished shaking his head at his younger brother. He was too busy muttering something to himself to notice Carly looking around the room for something.

"Where's Skyangel?" She eventually asked, not seeing the little girl anywhere in the hanger. "I wanted to tell her goodnight before we left."

Silverbolt leaned back in his chair again to see the human better. "She's downstairs taking a bath. I think she was tired of being gray." He confessed. Truthfully he was somewhat ashamed of himself that he hadn't thought of it earlier. She had still been covered in concrete dust from when the airport had collapsed. Of course she wanted to wash.

For some reason Carly gave him an anxious look. "Who's watching her?" She asked him.

Silverbolt stared at her, uncomprehending. "Well…nobody. I mean," he added quickly when he saw Carly's eyebrows shoot up, "I asked if she needed someone to help her, but she said she could do it herself."

Carly sighed somewhere between exasperation and worry. "Silverbolt of _course_ she said she could do it herself. _All_ kids think they can do _everything _by themselves. But it doesn't take that much for a child to drown, especially if they slip and hit their head. And Skyangel can't even call for help!"

Silverbolt was already out of his chair and on his feet. "Well, uh, when you put it that way..." he trailed off, helping Carly down to the floor before heading to the door.

Carly was nearly jogging so she could keep up with him. "How long has she been in there anyway?"

Silverbolt thought about it. "I don't know, maybe an hour and half?"

Carly's jaw dropped. "An hour and a _half?"_ She demanded.

Not seeing what the big deal was, Silverbolt just gave a very confused, "Yes?"

Carly didn't say anything, just rumbled anxiously in the back of her throat and started running down the hall. Doubly worried by the girl's actions, Silverbolt increased his own pace to keep up with her.

"Skyangel?" Silverbolt called anxiously as they neared the room where they had set up Skyangel's bathcup. "Skyangel?"

No answer.

"Of course there's no answer," Silverbolt tried to reassure himself, "She can't hear me. She doesn't even know I'm coming. She's probably perfectly safe. Just lost track of time."

That didn't stop him from skidding around the corner and keying open the door with more force than necessary though.

"Skyangel?" Silverbolt called loudly. "Skyangel are you alright baby girl?"

Skyangel didn't appear to answer, however Air Raid was in there talking with Slingshot. Both looked up to see what the fuss was about when their leader so unceremoniously appeared in the door behind them.

Silverbolt's optics darted around the room, but no little blonde heads showed themselves. "Whu-where's Skyangel?" He panted.

Air Raid and Slingshot shared a look, one more worried than the other. "She's just over there," Air Raid said, pointing at the counter where a partition had been set up so Skyangel could clean up in peace.

"Is she alright?" Silverbolt asked anxiously as Carly quickly made her away across the floor to go see for herself just how Skyangel was.

His brothers just blinked at him.

"We were supposed to be watching her?" Air Raid asked in confusion.

"No one told us that." Slingshot added. Even he sounded a little worried. Silverbolt's fear must have been catching.

A horrible image of blonde hair floating around a lifeless body shot into Silverbolt's head. He quickly tried to shake it away, but the ghastly scene stuck firm.

Needing reassurance that the little girl was alright, Silverbolt went to the counter and carefully knocked on the partition.

"Skyangel?" He asked quietly, forgetting for the moment it was useless. "Skyangel you alright in there?"

"Here, help me up," Carly said loudly from the floor, "I'll check on her."

It was all Silverbolt could do to keep his hands still as he waited for Carly to climb up. He lifted her to the counter a little fast, nearly making her fall on the way up. When she was up on the counter, she waved a hand around the edge of the partition to let Skyangel know she was there before she stepped around.

She just as quickly stepped back out, eyes wide.

"She's not there!"

Silverbolt suddenly couldn't think let alone speak, so it was left to Air Raid to shout the expected, "Not there? What d'ya mean she's not there?!"

Carly quickly moved away the partition instead of answering. Behind the wall was an empty mini-con cup half filled with water and nothing else.

Air Raid's jaw physically dropped.

"How did she even get off the counter?" He asked, looking around to see if maybe there wasn't just a dripping wet little girl standing miserably on the counter somewhere.

Seeing with his own optics that Skyangel wasn't where she was supposed to be, Silverbolt gave himself a shake. "It doesn't matter!" He insisted. "We've just got to find her! Air Raid, you go check the hanger bay in case she headed that way. Slingshot, comm. the others to see if they've seen her. Carly, if you'll go inform Prime what's happened, I'll check-"

_"Achoo!"_

Everyone was so on edge that they all jumped two feet in the air at the small sound. Silverbolt was the first to spin around, optics darting around the open doorway to find out who had startled them.

Eventually his processor caught up with the rest of him and he looked down closer to the floor.

There, standing in the middle of the doorway, yellow hair plastered to her shoulders and dripping down her back, stood Skyangel.

It took Silverbolt a cycle to realize she was grinning from ear to ear.

_Look!_ She signed excitedly . _It fits!_

Skyangel threw her little arms up above her head, showing off the brand new, sparkly kitty shirt she was now wearing.

The adults stared at her, and then let go of their anxious breaths with a group whoosh.

Feeling the sudden rush of air, Skyangel looked up at them.

_What?_ She signed up at them in confusion. _What'd I do?_

...

Skyangel didn't quite understand what she'd done to scare them, even when they had explained it too her.

_But I wouldn't drown!_ She told them with an almost derisive little scowl. _I've had to give myself baths forever and I've never drowned before!_

Carly gave her a skeptical glance. "No one _ever_ helps you?" She asked, obviously not believing it.

Skyangel's blonde eyebrows drew closer together. _No._ She told Carly. _Why would they do that? No one's helped me with anything since Mama died._

Carly's frown matched Skyangel's. "And when was that?" She asked the girl as gently as she could.

Skyangel immediately looked down at the ground, twisting one leg back and forth as she toed the floor. _When I was real small. _She told her.

Feeling that she'd re-opened enough old wounds, Carly nodded and let the subject drop.

She was saved from having to find something else to talk about a moment later when Sparkplug poked his head in the door.

"Oh there you are Carly," he said when he spotted her, "Spike and I have been looking all over for you. I thought you were ready to hit the road already?"

The older girl got to her feet and rubbed her damp palms on her jeans. "Oh yeah, I'm all set. Or I was. I got a little sidetracked is all. Skyangel just gave us all quite a scare." She explained, not wanting to go into detail without Silverbolt's okay.

Sparkplug looked between Carly and the little girl next to her. "Everything okay?" He asked warily.

Carly nodded and put a hand on Skyangel's head, smoothing down her wet hair. "Oh yeah, we're all good now." She told him, before looking up. "Is everything all set up?"

Sparkplug nodded, trusting Carly's judgment. "Yep. We're all good to go. And just in time too." He added with a smile and a nod at Skyangel. "It looks like someone's all worn out from her adventures."

Silverbolt looked down just in time to see Skyangel yawn so widely that she couldn't even cover it with both of her hands.

Sparkplug chuckled. "Looks like someone's ready to get some shut eye." He commented. "How 'bout it Skyangel? You ready to go to bed?"

Skyangel slowly blinked up at him. _But I don't have a bed._ She reminded him, rubbing at one eye with a small fist.

The human adults shared a knowing smile. "You do now." Sparkplug told her with a laugh. "For however long you end up staying here."

Then he held out a thick hand to the little girl. "Come on honey, we'll show you your new room."

Skyangel smiled as she rubbed at her other eye. She'd never had her own room before.

But instead of taking Sparkplug's hand, she looked up at the metal frame towering above her. Then she held her arms up to Silverbolt in a silent demand.

Silverbolt blinked at her, and then carefully leaned down and picked her up. She yawned again sleepily as she leaned against his side and half closed her eyes.

Sparkplug just chuckled again. "Only been here a few days and already you've gone and spoiled her."

Silverbolt jerked back at the accusation. "I didn't mean to." He defended himself. "Should she walk? I don't mind carrying her. She's not that heavy. Not to me at any rate."

He only stopped when he realized that Carly was now laughing at him. "He's only teasing you Silverbolt. Don't pay him any attention." She told him with a friendly grin. "Now come, let's go show Skyangel where she'll be staying for the next few days."

It wasn't that far of a walk, even to the humans and their much shorter legs. A small closet sat next to Silverbolt's quarters. Two mechs would have had a hard time fitting in the small space, but it was huge to a human as small as Skyangel. And once Skydive and Fireflight had cleaned it out, it proved to be the perfect place to set up a space for the little girl.

Skyangel came more awake when she saw the room that had been laid out just for her, complete with a rack for her clothes, a scuffed bed with brand new sheets on it, and her backpack, which someone had put in the corner.

"Spike and Sparkplug set the bed up for you." Carly said as Silverbolt lowered his hands so that Skyangel could safely jump to the floor. With a happy gurgle, she ran over and crawled onto the clean mattress. No one was exactly surprised when she gave into any child's first instinct and started hopping on the springy mattress.

Sparkplug laughed and puffed out his chest in pride. "Yep. Took us all afternoon, but we did it right. That thing'll be here when your kids have kids."

Skyangel made a face to say just what she thought about _that_ idea.

_No way!_ She signed as she gave another jump, this one higher than before. _Boys have cooties!_

Carly laughed. "True." She said just as Spike came into the room, looking for her and his dad. "But you get used to it after awhile."

Spike looked over at her. "Get used to what?" He asked obliviously.

Carly just grinned. "Nothing."

Skyangel just stuck her tongue out at the whole idea.

Silverbolt however did not look as sure as Sparkplug. "Are you sure it's safe for her to do that?" He asked anxiously. "Something might break."

But Sparkplug just shrugged him off. "Nah, if Spike couldn't break it when he was a kid then she's fine."

Spike grinned in embarrassment at that. "Yeah, I used to jump so high that the whole frame would shake."

Skyangel suddenly gave a much higher leap than before and the baseboards gave a groan at her landing.

Silverbolt's vents nearly stalled. "Okay, that's enough of that." He said, coming forward to carefully scoop up Skyangel mid-leap.

The girl landed with surprise in his hand. And then frowned up at him to show her appreciation at his intervention.

_You're going to hurt yourself Skyangel._ He told her as he set her back on the floor. _No more jumping on the bed okay?_

Skyangel crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at the floor, but nodded nonetheless.

_Okay_. She signed reluctantly.

A small wave of relief overtook the mech a moment. _Good. Now if you need anything during the night, you can just bang on that grate over there_. He told her, pointing at the air vent that sat against the bottom of the opposite wall. _My room's just on the other side so let me know if something's wrong okay?_

Skyangel's answering _Okay_ came faster than before as some of her irritation left her face.

The rest of it was quickly wiped out too when another large yawn managed to escape her mouth.

The three older humans laughed quietly at the tired little girl. "I completely agree with you Skyangel." Spike said with a decisive nod. "It's far too late to be arguing with stuffy grownups."

Silverbolt crooked an optic ridge at the teenager. "Stuffy?"

Spike didn't reply as he bent down to give Skyangel a hug. She came slowly, as if some of her nervousness from when she had first seen him still lingered. But in the end she gave him a quick pat on the head and darted back up on her new bed.

Sparkplug ruffled his son's hair. "Look, she's warming up to you already."

"It's been two days Dad."

Sparkplug chuckled. "I know. And by next month she won't look at you like you're some kind of alien anymore."

Spike rolled his eyes at his dad. "Ha ha. Just don't forget that I didn't get any alien weirdness from Mom."

Carly had managed to coax a real hug out of the little girl while Spike and Sparkplug argued and she laughed at them as she straightened up. "Don't start arguing now or I'll end up having to listen to you both the whole ride home."

Spike elbowed his dad. "Yeah _Dad_."

Sparkplug elbowed him back. "Would you listen to the lady giving us a ride home Spike? Cut it out."

"Why? You started it."

"I did not."

Carly just rolled her eyes at them as she propelled them out the door, throwing one last, "Night guys," over her shoulder at Skyangel and the Aerialbots.

Silverbolt twitched a couple of fingers at their backs in a wave before turning back to Skyangel, who was rubbing her eyes again.

"So," he asked slowly, fingers making an awkward transition from waving to talking, "can you get yourself ready for bed, or do you need some help?"

It turned out that the only real help Skyangel needed was figuring out the small sink and bathroom they had assembled for her. After she had relieved herself, washed her hands and face, and scrubbed at her teeth with a small, long-handled brush she pulled out of her backpack, she happily jumped back on the bed and squirmed under the covers.

Silverbolt waited for her to get settled before he handed her her new bunny. She took it with a smile and settled him under the covers next to her before looking expectantly up at Silverbolt.

Not sure what she wanted, Silverbolt stood there a moment. Then when she didn't say anything, he made to turn out the lights.

"Well goodnig-" he started to say.

But Skyangel's face fell and she waved her arms at him to get him to stop. Then before Silverbolt could ask what was wrong, she hopped out of bed and ran across the room.

She reached both arms into her backpack, and for a minute Silverbolt thought the pack would swallow her small frame right up, but she soon resurfaced, a square object held in her hands.

Skyangel ran back across the room with the whatever-it-was and scrambled back under the covers. Then she held out the square thing to Silverbolt with a pleading look on her face.

Curious, Silverbolt came over and carefully sat down on the empty floor next to Skyangel's bed. The square was a book, he saw, with hard covers and a golden spine. A picture of a boy in green clothes and a girl in a blue dress was on the cover Skyangel was showing him.

_Read it please?_ She asked. _It's my very favorite._

Uncertainly, Silverbolt looked at the little book and then at Skyangel. She had those infamous baby-deer optics again and Silverbolt suddenly found it hard to say no.

He vented a sigh. "Alright," he told her, saying it as well as signing it. His processor was starting to ache from the unfamiliar strain of showing words instead of speaking them, but it helped if he did both. "But you'll have to turn the pages. It's too small for me."

Skyangel nodded eagerly. Then after snuggling deeper into the pillows, she opened the book and angled it so that Silverbolt could see the words and pictures.

"All this has happened before," Silverbolt read the little words slowly, "and it will all happen again. But this time, it happened in London. It happened on a quiet street in Bloomsbury. That corner house over there is the home of the Darling family. And Peter Pan chose this particular house because there were people here who believed in him."

...

They didn't even make it halfway through the book before Skyangel fell asleep. Silverbolt had been so intent on reading the tiny lettering that he hadn't noticed until he reached the end of the page and Skyangel didn't turn it. He looked down and saw she was collapsed against the pillows, nestled between them and her rabbit as she slowly breathed in and out.

Now, pressing one shoulder against the door so it wouldn't reverberate when it shut, he closed the door with the softest possible click a two ton door could make.

He just about collapsed against the door when that was done. Somehow he had managed to get the book out of her hands without waking her, although she did turn over in her sleep and threw an arm around her bunny before settling back into whatever dream was playing through her head. Then he had carefully pulled the blankets higher over her shoulders before he had just as carefully navigated his large, clanking frame out of the room. It probably hadn't been very noisy, but to him it had sounded like every step he took was a mini earthquake!

"Hey Bolt! Skyangel asleep now?"

Silverbolt's spark nearly skyrocketed out of his frame at the sudden appearance of Fireflight.

_"Shhhhh!" _He immediately hushed his younger brother before he realized what he was doing.

He paused when he did. "I mean, um, yes. Yes she's asleep. So _please_ keep your voice down." He just about begged.

Fireflight blinked. "Oh, okay then." He whispered dramatically before perking up and nearly shouting, "Hey! I forgot to tell you-"

_"Fireflight!" _Silverbolt hissed. _"Indoor voice!"_

"Oh," Fireflight was whispering again. "Right. Sorry..."

Then he just stood there, twiddling his thumbs and looking nervously at Skyangel's door.

Silverbolt sighed. "Just..." he finally gave it up as hopeless, "what did you forget to tell me?"

Fireflight immediately brightened up again. "Well," he said, thankfully still whispering, "I was thinking that since we're so glad that Skyangel's staying with us and all, if maybe we could throw her a party!"

Silverbolt suddenly felt very tired. "A party?" He asked to make sure he had heard right.

He had. Fireflight nodded quickly. "Yeah, and that way we could introduce her to all the other bots on the _Ark_ too."

Internal alarms started blaring in Silverbolt's head. "Ooo...I'm not so sure that's a good idea Fireflight. I mean, all at once? Skyangel had a hard time just meeting Bumblebee. How's she going to react when a whole ship full of strange mechs are staring at her?" He asked.

But Fireflight just waved away his alarm. "Oh don't worry, she'll be fine. Bumblebee just startled her when he grabbed her is all. And we'll be with her the whole time if for some reason she _does_ get scared."

Silverbolt was still far from reassured. "I don't know..." he admitted.

Fireflight clasped his hands together. "Oh _please_ Silverbolt! It's not like she's a secret or anything. And they're all going to meet her eventually. Why not tomorrow? When we're all with her!" He stressed that last part again, instinctively knowing it would be the deciding factor.

Silverbolt leaned away from his brother's wide, pleading optics. He hoped that would lessen their power, but it didn't.

_"Dang it." _Silverbolt thought.

"We'll see what Skyangel says." He finally answered reluctantly. "And _if_ she agrees to it, then, and _only_ then," he pointed a stern finger at Fireflight, "you can throw your party." He grumbled.

Firefight's face lit up and the only thing that kept him from shouting out a loud, victorious, "YAY!" was Silverbolt's quickly hissed, _"Indoor voice!"_

Fireflight immediately clamped his mouth shut and started squirming in place.

Silverbolt tried to resist the question, but eventually he just had to ask.

He sighed. "What are you _doing?_" He groaned.

Fireflight kept on squirming in place. "Dancing!" He whispered.

Silverbolt groaned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. His processor was starting to ache.

"I'm gonna go get some recharge." He finally grumbled before slouching towards his own door. Inwardly he hoped he didn't hear another word out of Fireflight until the next day when he had more energy to deal with his energetic brother.

However one excited, squeaky, _"Yay!" _made it past the door before it fully closed.

Finally alone, Silverbolt sighed. He didn't bother turning on the lights, just shuffled his way to the recharge berth.

With a groan, he lay down and hoped that it wouldn't take too long to power down.

However, before he shuttered his optics to try and get some rest, he ran a general scan over the room next to him. Based on her static heart rate – and the lack of noise coming through the air vent – Skyangel was still asleep.

Silverbolt finally shuttered his optics. _"Thank Primus for that." _He thought. _"She's going to need her rest."_

Because unless the Decepticons conquered the whole world tomorrow – and _that_ might not even be enough to distract Fireflight, Silverbolt thought – Skyangel was going to meet the rest of the Autobots on the _Ark_, no matter _what_ she or Silverbolt said on the matter.


End file.
